


And he saved my soul

by Lia1996



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Bottom Jensen Ackles, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Disney, Fluff, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Happy Ending, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Monsters, Smut, Top Jared Padalecki, hercules au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:48:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26910910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lia1996/pseuds/Lia1996
Summary: Jared never felt that he fit in, his super strength made him feel like he didn't belong! So one day he starts a journey, a journey to find where he belonged, to find his home!
Relationships: Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki
Comments: 12
Kudos: 98
Collections: SPN Cinema





	And he saved my soul

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story based on Disney's version of Hercules that i had in mind for many years and finally decided to bring to life for SPN cinema bang. I hope you like reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> I want to thank my wonderful beta and also artist @dwimpala67 for her patience with me through out the story and her wonderful and gorgeous arts. I couldn't have done it with out her.
> 
> I hope ya'll enjoy this story, let me know what you thought of it.
> 
> More notes in the end

Narrator: Long long ago, at the faraway land of ancient Greece, there was a golden age of powerful gods and extraordinary heroes. And the greatest and strongest amongst all these was the mighty Hercules. But, one is left to ponder as to what are the characteristics of a true hero? How is a hero to be tested and measured? And what makes them mighty and strong? This is what our story is...

Billy whispered to Borja about the narrator, “Will you listen to him? He's makin' the story sound like some Greek tragedy.”

Borja clamed him by saying, “Lighten up, dude.”

However, Rob could understand the concern of his fellow band mates and spoke to the narrator, “We'll take it from here, darling. Thanks”

Narrator replied, “You go, Swainers…”

Rob then spoke up out loud, introducing themselves, “We are the Muses , Gods of the Arts and Proclaimers of Heroes.”

Norton interrupted, “Heroes like Jared A.K.A Hercules.”

Borja chuckled, “Honey, you mean "Hunk-ules". Ooh, I'd like to make some sweet music with him…”

Rob eventually took control, “Our story actually begins long before Hercules was even born, many many eons ago…” The band then broke into a song...

Back when the world was new

The planet Earth was down on its luck

And everywhere gigantic brutes

Called Titans ran amok

It was a nasty place

There was a mess

Where ever you stepped

Where chaos reigned and

Earthquakes and volcanoes never slept

And then along came Zeus

He hurled his thunderbolt

He zapped

Locked those suckers in a vault

They're trapped

And on his own stopped

Chaos in its tracks

And that's the gospel truth

The guy was too type A to just relax

And that's the world's first dish

Zeus tamed the globe

While still in his youth

Though, honey, it may seem impossible

That's the gospel truth

On Mt. Olympus life was neat and

Smooth as sweet vermouth

Though, honey, it may seem impossible

That's the gospel truth

Zeus has never been happier in his life,. As if felt all the happiness he felt before was nothing, compared to the feeling he had then. He was a father now, he had a son.

A SON.

The child was wonderful, like everything he pictured their son would be and more. He was pure sunshine with beautiful giggles that already melted every body’s heart. His hair like rays of sunshine and his cute little face, that was all Hera. The child was already beautiful and he knew he was going to be a heart breaker when he grew up. Not to mention he inherited Zeus’s strength. The child already could have lifted Zeus with. a single hand. He was perfect, a combination of the most powerful god and goddess of ancient Greek.

“What are you doing Jeff?” Hera asked him. He loved it when she used his earthly name. It was somehow more intimate. The whole ancient names was kind of foreign to him now as he had come up with these names for each of them to communicate with humans better. Those Greek names were kind of hard to remember for people and they kept mixing them up with each other. So he came up with these common names and soon all of the gods and goddesses were on board with the idea too.

“Nothing my love, just watching over this cutie.” He answered.

“Oh heavens, you have gone soft, O’ Mighty God of Thunder.” She teased him. He put his hands around her waist and tugged her close to him.

He put a kiss on her face and said, “I will always be soft for you and the little one but that’s just for you. The rest of the world will see the ruthless god they always have.”

Her smile then turned soft and she kissed him this time. “Okay then almighty Zeus, lets go now, the guests will arrive soon.”

“One moment dear, I haven’t given my gift to my son yet.”

In that moment Hercules, or as Jeff liked to call him, Jared, opened his eyes and looked up at them with those beautiful hazel orbs. Jeff slowly picked him up and cooed at the boy. “My boy, my Jared.”

Jared took Jeff’s face in both of his chubby little hands and started making those cute baby noises. Jeff laughed at him and said, “ Are you ready for Daddy’s gift my dear?”

Jared looked into his eyes questionably, he was already so smart, well aware of what everyone said even though he was barely a month old.

Jeff snapped his fingers and a cloud came near them, he started shaping it like a horse with his hand. Jared was following every thing with his eyes closely. When the cloud was perfectly shaped, Jeff snapped his fingers again and the cloud turned into a tiny little horse with wings. “Here he is, your very own Chad-gesus”

Jared squealed loudly and starting waving his hands and laughing over the joy of seeing the horse. Chad was at first wary of the loud creature in front of him but soon his curiosity won over and he got closer to Jared. Once he was within an arm’s reach of him, Jared took his face in his hands and smacked a loud kiss on the horse’s forehead. Chad neighed loudly and started flying over Jared’s head. Once he grew up he would be able to talk too, he just needs to get a little bigger just like Jared himself. They were both babies after all.

Jeff was too focused on the scene in front of him that he missed the sound of someone coming in.

“Sir, excuse me sir?” Rich, Hermes said.

“Oh didn’t see you there Rich, what’s up?”

“Sir all of your guests have arrived, they are all waiting for your Almightiness to join the party.”

“Tell them all we will be with them in a minute Richard.”

“Yes sir.”

When Rich left the room, Jeff looked over to his family and said “Lets get this party started.”

***

As soon as they arrived in the hall, all the Gods and Goddesses started cheering and congratulating them on the new arrival. After meeting everyone, Jeff looked at the pile of presents in the corner if the hall, “On behalf of my son, I want to thank you all for your lovely presents, I’m sure little Jared will love all of them”

As his father’s word reached the little ears, Jared started making those baby noises which made everyone in the room go “Aw”.

“How sentimental. You know, I haven't been this choked up since I got a hunk of moussaka caught in my throat. So is this an audience or a mosaic?” Mark, Hades said from a dark corner, where he was standing. The room suddenly went silent.

“Hey, how you doin'? Lookin' good. Nice dress.” He made comments to others as he walked near Jeff and the baby, but got absolutely no response from any if them.

“Hey Mark, so you made it. How are things in the underworld?”

“Well, they're just fine. You know, a little dark, a little gloomy. And, as always, hey, full of dead people but what are you gonna do, huh? Ah! There's the little sunspot.” He said as he saw Jared safely tucked in his mother’s arm.

He took out a pacifier with a skeleton on its end and said: “Come’er little snootchi. Here is a sucker for the little sucker.”

No sooner had he brought the pacifier near Jared’s face, Jared held his hand and squeezed it so hard, making the pacifier fall on the floor and for Mark to yell and pull back his hand.

“Oh wow, powerful little tyke, you have there Jeffery”

“Oh come on Mark, don’t be so stiff, join the celebration.”

“Hey. I’d Love to, babe but unlike you gods lounging about up here, I regrettably have a full-time gig that you, by the way, so charitably bestowed on me, JEFF. So, I can't. Love to, but can't.”

“Oh come on man, you ought to slow down, otherwise you’ll work yourself to death.” Jeff paused for a minute like just heard what he said “HUH WORK YOURSELF TO DEATH, heavens I kill myself.” Everyone started laughing loudly at his joke.

They all missed Mark’s quiet reply “if only Jeff, If only”

The Swainers then stilled for a moment before Rob spoke, “If there is one god you don’t want to mess with, it’s Mark.” He pointed out and the band started with another song.

Cause he had an evil plan.

He ran the Underworld

But thought the dead were dull and uncouth

He was as mean as he was ruthless

And that's the gospel truth

He had a plan to shake things up

And that's the gospel truth

When Mark got to the Underworld, he was greeted by two stupid figures running down the stairs to meet him, yelling “Coming, your Lugubriousness” but they both lost their balance in the middle of the stairs and fell down right in front of his feet saying: “Misha and Moosha reporting for duty, Sir.”

Mark often thought this was another cure bestowed on him by Jeff. He gave him these two minions to help doing chores under ground but honestly with their level of stupidity, they were good for nothing.

Mark slowly rubbed his head and said “Yeah, yeah, whatever, just let me know as soon as the fates arrive.”

“Oh they are here sir.” Misha said.

Mark could feel his anger boiling up, “WHAT? The fates are here and you didn’t tell me?” He could tell his hair and eyes were turning red now.

“Oh sorry, Master. We are worms, worthless worms.” They both shifted into worms as they were saying this, “Stupid shapeshifting minions” Mark thought to himself.

“Remind me to punish you after I’m done.” Mark thundered.

Mark went into his throne room as he liked to call it and saw the three ladies busy with cutting some poor bastard’s life thread.

“Ladies, ladies I’m sorry I’m…” he was cut short by one of the fates.

“Late. We knew you would be. We know everything, past, present and future.”

“Great, so um…anyways. See ladies I was at this party and I lost track of…”

“We know,” he was interrupted for again and he was getting frustrated as the minutes went by.

“So yeah um… look Jeff, Zeus! Mr. High and almighty Zeus, now has a ….”

“A bouncing baby boy, we know,” the three fates interrupted him for the third time and this time Mark couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“I know, I KNOW, YOU know.” He yelled, but he soon got hold of himself. After all he needed these three bitches. “I know ladies, I got the concept. So just let me ask this! Is his brat going to mess up my plan of taking over his throne?”

“We can’t reveal the future.” Came the curt reply.

Mark knew in the moment he had to do something to get the information he needed. So he went for his first weapon, flirtation. “Ladies, ladies… first of all did you cut your hair or something? You look fabulous today.”

The three of them looked shocked at his declaration.

“Huh” he didn’t think this would actually work but seems like the stars were working in his favor.

“I mean look at you, you have that glow today, you look…”

“Well I guess we could tell him a thing or two…” the younger sister said.

“Are you crazy? We can not and we shouldn’t” the older one shot back at her.

Soon all three of them were arguing when suddenly their eye, the one that all three of them shared together, fell down and rolled right in front of Mark’s feet. He picked it up and went over them. He cleaned the eye with his robe, took the older sister’s hand in his own and placed the eye in her hand. “Sweeties, my fate… lies in your capable hands.” He slowly whispered in their ears.

“Okay, alright! In 20 years precisely, the planets will align ever so nicely.”

“Ay, yes, of course.” Mark chimed in.

“The time to act will be at hand. Unleash the Titans, your monstrous band.”

“Mm-hmm. Good, good. Very good.”

“Then the once-proud Zeus will finally fall, and YOU, Hades will rule all!”

“YES, HADES RULE ALL” he yelled enthusiastically.

The middle sister continued “A word of caution to this tale”

“Excuse me?” Mark asked them, confused.

“If Hercules fights, you will fail.” With that the three fates disappeared into the eye.

“WHAT?????” Mark shouted angrily, throwing fire at everything in sight. Few seconds passed by with him pacing around in his room and his anger to calm down.

“Ok, ok, I’m fine, I’m cool now! MISHA? MOOSHA? Where are you, got a riddle for ya.”

The two of them came out looking as if they were hiding behind one of sculptures in the room.

“So how do you kill a god?” he asked both of them.

“I don’t know…” Moosha said.

“You cant? They are immortals.” Misha answered after him, happy that he knew the answer.

“Bingo, they are immortal. So first you have to turn the little sunspot, MORTAL.”

He laughed evilly and gave the two minions his very own death bottle.

***

It was a beautiful night, or so Jeff thought. He had had a wonderful night, celebrating his son’s arrival with all the gods and goddesses. They all drank nectars and ate heavenly foods. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that he was quite drunk on happiness at the moment. He had insisted to put Jared to bed himself, he didn’t want to be away from him unless it was necessary. And that’s why he was currently sitting next to the crib looking down at his son snoring softly. Although he wasn’t the only one in the crib because the moment Jeff had created Chad, the horse was inseparable from Jared. Once he had put Jared in the crib to sing him a lullaby, Chad squeezed himself next to Jared. Jeff wanted to shoo him out of the bed but Jared’s protective hand around the horse’s body told him that Chad sleeping with Jared from then on, was a sealed deal.

It was quite late in the night, and he reluctantly left Jared’s side when his wife called him to bed. But not before kissing his forehead. “Good night little one.”

When he got to bed he pulled his wife in his arms, inhaling the scent of her hair. Soon he was fast asleep.

Few hours later he woke up to a loud crashing sound coming from the baby’s room. Within seconds, he was out of the bed and rushing towards Jared’s room. When he got in the room, the scene in front of him froze his blood. The drapes around the crib were all torn. Chad was in ropes and had a muzzle on his face and the worst… the worst of all was the crib. The crib was broken in half in the middle of the room, with no signs of Jared in it.

Jeff felt numb. The child that he loved so much and the child that he had craved so much was gone!

He came to his senses when he heard his wife’s loud wail. She was kneeling beside the crib, crying her heart out. He went forward and pulled his wife close, all the while looking around the room for a clue, something, ANYTHING. Thankfully there was no trace of blood anywhere which meant Jared was unharmed, but it also meant someone took his son away.

He suddenly was filled with all kinds of emotions, fear, sadness and most of all anger. He was angry, hell he was FURIOUS. How dare someone come to his home and take away his son? How dare they disrespect him like this? He stood up as he needed to find his son! And he would make anyone who did this, pay! Oh he would make them beg for death because what he was planning on doing with them was much worse than death.

He roared so high, making everyone aware of what had happened. Thunder bolts filled the night sky, making people run, to hide in their houses, fearing Jeff’s wrath. .

When Rich reached at the palace, he froze in his spot as soon as he saw the state of the room.

“Rich, call out to everyone! I want everyone to search for my son and the asshole who dared to steal him from me.” He called out to him.

Rich, to his credit composed himself soon and said “Yes, Sir”

Just when he was about to leave the room Jeff added furiously: “Remember I want him alive. He is mine to kill!”

With that Rich left the room, Jeff could hear his horn’s sound from afar. He just hoped in that moment that his son was safe.

****

“Damn he is angry” Misha said when the thunder bolts started roaring above their heads. “He is gonna use us for target practice.” He added scared.

“Just hang on to the kid, Misha! Let’s just kill the kid and be done with it okay?” Moosha told him while looking for a place to land that they wouldn’t be seen from mount Olympus.

They were flying for a while and both their wings hurt, specially with the added weigh of Jared. Each one of them held one of his hands, the poor child swinging between them. So Moosha knew they couldn’t fly further than this, not to mention the child was crying hoarsely, and given the thunderstorm that was happening, Jeff surely had sent all Olympus after them.

They soon found a small hill that had a secret road behind it, so they landed there. Misha took the bottle out his pocket and put the nipple to Jared’s lips. “Here you go, kid. A little Grecian formula”

It took a few tries between Jared’s wails to make him suck the bottle. But he finally latched on and started sucking. As soon as he started sucking, the glow around his body began to fade away.

“Look at that! He's changing. Can we do it now?” Moosha said happily.

“No, no, no. He has to drink the whole potion. Every last drop!” Misha spat back.

Jared was still sucking hungrily at the nipple. His glow was almost all gone. He was mortal now, few more suckles and he would be dead!

“Who is there?” a male voice said.

They both jumped at that, Misha let go of the bottle and it fell down, broken in million pieces. Misha and Moosha looked at each other, panicked. There was still a few drops left in the bottle but now it was gone. Jared was now crying again, distressed by the sound of bottle breaking.

Misha and Moosha saw two shadows coming around the corner, they hid behind a rock at last minute.

“Oh you poor thing.” A woman said. She reached down and picked up Jared. “Henry look at this!” Jared calmed down a little at her voice, looking more curious about the two human being whom found him.

“Is anybody there?” Henry yelled into the open field in front of him. “He must be abandoned.” The man said after few seconds passed in silence.

“But Henry, we prayed for so many years… could it be that gods finally blessed us with this child?” The woman asked him hopefully.

The man, Henry looked at Jared then, smiling when Jared made a soft baby noise, “perhaps they did Sophie.” His sight then fell on the necklace around the child’s neck. There was a picture of mount Olympus on it and when he turned it around he saw a name. “Jared?”

“That must be his name, such a cute name for this cute little guy.” Sophie said while tickling Jared’s belly and making him giggle.

They were both too busy at cooing over the baby that they missed two giant snakes crawling slowly towards them. They crawled behind the couple and slowly started to rise when Jared saw them. As the snakes tried to attack, Jared got hold of them and threw the snakes over a valley, several feet away.

Henry and his wife were looking at him puzzled and shocked when finally Henry spoke again, “Oh he sure is from the gods Sophie, he sure is.”

****

Several feet away the two snakes turned back to their true form, massaging their backs and feet.

“Mark is gonna kill us when he finds out.” Moosha said pacing back and forth in fear.

“You mean IF he finds out!” Misha said with a wink.

“Of course he’s gonna fi… if, yeah, If is good.” Moosha said smirking.

****

After a long night of search Rich finally came back to the Olympus doors. But he wasn’t happy at all. Honestly he didn’t know how to give Jeff the horrible news. He decided at the end it didn’t matter how he gives the news, it will hurt him anyway.

He walked slowly through the halls, dreading every step he took. When he reached the main hall, what he saw broke his heart again. For the loss that Jeff suffered. Sure Jeff was kind of like his boss but he was also his friend and most importantly, he was HIS BROTHER. They had fought so many battles alongside each other and had spent many nights drinking and having fun together. And to his brother suffer through this was just painful to watch.

“Um…Jeff?” He said slowly, deciding there was no need to let the man be in misery any more.

Jeff’s eyes lit up when he heard his brother’s voice but when he turned around and saw his face, his smile faded away. “Hit me Rich.” He said brokenly.

“Well it’s kind of both good news and bad news Jeff...” He tried to soften the blow, but he was caught off by Jeff.

“Just tell me dammit.” He said impatiently.

“We found Jared but…” He was thinking how to say his next word.

“God damn it Rich will you talk?” Jeff was getting furious for every second that he was kept in regarding about his son’s whereabouts.

“We found him, he is fine, he is safe but…” he thought it was now or never and decided to tell his brother the truth that would shatter Jeff’s entire world.

“He can’t come home!”

“WHY? Why can’t he come home?” An impatient Jeff asked.

“Because he is mortal now.”

There, he said it finally. Jeff’s face fell down, but he didn’t say anything so Rich continued, “Whoever did this Jeff… they knew what they were doing. They had the potion for it. They came up to mountain, IN YOUR HOUSE. It was one of us Jeff and you and I both know who he is!”

Rich was getting angry too. He very well knew who would play this kind of trick and he wanted to punch him in the face.

“Rich…Don’t!” Jeff said warningly.

“Oh Come one man, this is the kind of thing Mark would do, you and I both know that. Hell all of the Olympus knows. We should just…”

He was caught off by a very angry and frustrated Jeff then, “What Rich? What should we do? Go after him? What do you think will happen? You think he will just turn himself in? No! Do we have any kind of evidence he was here? NO! This will only end up in another fucked up war that will go on for years, FOR CENTURIES EVEN! And in the end, only people will get hurt Rich, people which now my son, MY SON, is part of. So yeah Rich, I rather keep this peace and keep my son alive for how many few years that I have… I just… I just wish I could have hugged him one last time, feel him close to my heart! And now… now I have to watch him grow from afar…”

He finished with a sigh, and it was as if his energy went off with his words. He sat down on the throne and asked quietly “You said he is safe? How?”

Rich decided to let go of the whole Mark thing for now, Jeff was obviously trying to change the subject, “A good couple found him, Henry and Sophie Padalecki. Firm believers actually. They’ve been praying for years for a child but none of us could have done anything for them. I guess it was fate.”

Jeff smiled sadly and said “yeah those three bitches are able to do something like this. They love to write fucking drama.”

A few seconds passed by with both of them in silence. When finally Jeff stood up and said: “Well thank you Rich, all of you guys! Now of you excuse me I have to go tell all of this to my wife. She hasn’t left the nursery since… since everything happened.”

Rich’s heart broke one more time for his brother and his wife. But there was nothing he could do, so he slowly bowed to him and left the hall. Leaving Jeff to mourn the loss of their child, even though he wasn’t dead but he very well knew the chances of Jeff meeting his son again was almost zero. Plus eventually with them being immortals …Jeff would definitely see his son die.

For a moment silence grasped the Swainers, taking in how devastating it was. Eventually, Billy spoke, “Heavens that was tragic!”

Rob reminded them, “Young Hercules was mortal now!”

Swainers all agreed. Rob then explained, “But since he did not drink the last drop…” his voice broke into another song, singing praises of the mighty Hercules.

He still retained his godlike strength

\- So thank his lucky stars - Tell it, man.

\- But Zeus and Hera wept - Ooh, ooh, ooh

Because their son could never come home

They'd have to watch their precious baby

Grow up from afar

Though Hades' horrid plan

Was hatched before Herc cut his first tooth

\- Ahh - The boy grew stronger every day

And that's the gospel truth

The gospel truth

18 years later…

“Slow down…slow down Jared!” Henry said, from top of the dray. Jared was in the front, pulling it. He’d gotten stronger every day as he grew up. Now he was a teenage boy, long legs and long arms, kind of lean. He also had his growth spurt recently, and he had grown six feet tall already! He probably would’ve grown more too. He was skinny looking, strong , but no muscles. Even with all the strength he had, he was the most kindhearted man in entire Greece. He was sweet, caring and always willing to help people. Although, it wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t really good at it. All the teenagers go through that phase when they feel they don’t belong in their bodies, so did Jared. Now add his super strength to the whole puberty problems and it becomes almost impossible to control your muscles properly.

Jared’s heart was always in a good place yet he was lonely. Grown ups were usually scared of him, saying he was unnatural. And kids… well let’s just say when you are different, kids can be very mean! They always called him names in school, calling him a freak and never letting him play with them.

So Jared’s life was basically summarized as helping his father and mother in the farm and house chores, and hanging out with his dog around the lake near their house. He cherished the times he travelled to the city with his father. He kept on trying to find friends though, even if he failed each time, trying his best to let people know that he was a good man. He was hopeful that one day he might just stumble upon someone who’d like to be his friend.

When they got near the plaza he stopped the dray and helped Henry down.

“Okay boy, you stay here I have to go find Carl first, then we will unload the boxes.” His father told him.

Jared smiled sweetly, letting his heavenly dimples show, “Sure pops! I’ll wait here.”

As soon as Henry was gone though, Jared started wandering around the plaza. People were all walking around it, buying and selling stuff. Some people were yelling, trying to sell their merchandise. But Jared’s attention was drawn to few boys playing in the middle of the plaza.

He approached them slowly and said, “Hey…um… you need an extra guy?”

The five of them turned around and when they saw Jared, they went pale. They looked at each other silently, as if questioning as to what is to be done. When finally one of them said, “Ah, sorry Jare! We already are five and um.. we want to keep it an even number.”

Jared’s smiles faltered, then suddenly it occurred to him, “Wait a minute but five is not ev…”

“Bye Jared,” the kids said running away from him. They were not as stealthy as they thought they were as. He could hear them say “what a geek” and “we should call him destructo boy” and it all made his heart break some more, just like every time he heard those words.

He silently sat near a pole, thinking about all the times he had ruined something instead of helping people. Maybe they all were right! Maybe he was a freak! He very well knew he was different from others, like he didn’t belong but it was still hard hearing it over and over from everyone else. It was like they were validating his thoughts.

Jared was deep in thoughts when he saw the ball flying above his head. He saw some of the kids running after it. That was it… his chance to show them he wasn’t a freak. “I got it” he yelled at them and started running after the ball which was now flying near a ceramic shop.

After few steps he was near the ball. He jumped to catch the ball, and he caught it but he landed heavily on one the poles around the plaza.

He stood up, showing the ball proudly to the boys only to find out they were all looking at something behind him, scared. He turned around and saw a huge crack was forming on the pole. He started walking back wards slowly ,when suddenly a sharp sound came out of the pole and it broke down into pieces, making half the plaza fall down with it.

There was dust everywhere, some people were running, some were screaming but Jared was fixed in a place. He couldn’t move an inch! All he wanted to do was to make friends, show people he wasn’t a freak but instead he had done the exact opposite. Once again ruining everything.

One of the boys came close and took the ball away from him roughly, muttering, “Nice catch, freak.”

He saw his father running towards him. When he reached Jared he started checking him asking repeatedly if he was alright but he couldn’t bring himself to answer. He could feel his eyes watering.

Everybody was yelling at them, calling him names, telling his father he should lock him up in a room, insulting him. Even with all of that happening, Jared couldn’t move. He felt like he deserved all of that. He deserved everything that people were saying about him.

When finally Henry managed to disperse every one around them, he pulled a pliant Jared towards the dray. He knew Jared won’t be able to do the job now, so he borrowed a donkey from Carl to take them home. Jared was silent all the way and even when they got home he quietly left for his room leaving Henry to narrate to Sophie everything that went down. As soon as he got to his bed, he fell face down on it and started crying, sobbing uncontrollably on the pillow.

Few hours passed by, he had stopped crying then, his tears all dried up. He was still on his bed though looking at the blank wall in front of him when he heard the door open.

“Jared, we want to talk to you.” His father told him quietly.

That was it, he thought. They were probably tired of having a freak of a son too. They were probably going to throw him out. Jared got up from his bed slowly. Getting ready for what would come next.

“Jared there is something we never told you before, but now might be the time.” His mother told him as she sat down next to him and started caressing his cheek. He leaned into the touch involuntary, needing all the comfort he could get. When something clicked in his mind. “something we never told you before” his mother had said and he braced himself for all the possible answers. So he sat straight and asked “What it is?”

Minutes passed by as Sophie and Henry started telling the story of the night they had found Jared. To say Jared was shocked was an understatement. He listened to it all confused, shocked and a little bit angry. He felt betrayed for having kept in the dark for eighteen years.

When he overcame his shock he asked them very quietly “Why did you never tell me this before? Why now?”

“We were trying to protect you sweet heart. We loved you like you were our very own. We wanted you to feel the same. Like you belong to us. But now…” Sophie was cut off by her husband. “Now we think it’s time for you to know that there might be something or some one out there waiting for you.” Henry finished

“Are you… are you throwing me out?” Jared asked scared.

“Oh no sweetie, no! You are my precious boy and you will always be. We just think there might be more to your story, a part we don’t know about! A part were you can find you true self.” Sophie told him while she pulled him closer, hugging him as good as she could.

“We found this around your neck that night.” Henry gave him the necklace.

Jared looked at it and he felt a wave flowing through him, like he knew this necklace from before. Henry continued “That’s where we found your name, Jared! Also at the back, that is mount Olympus, house to the gods.”

Jared looked at the picture, and slowly traced his fingers over the necklace. He knew there and then, that wherever it was, it was his home. He knew the thought was stupid but something inside of him told Jared that, that was the answer. But he needed answers, and he had to start somewhere. A light bulb was on in his head then, if the picture on necklace was the symbol of gods, maybe he had to start from there! Temple of Zeus or as they called it now temple of Jeff would be the nearest one and most famous place linked to gods. He had to go there, again he just knew!

Jared stood up suddenly, looking at both of his parents. “I have to go.” He told them. “I have to go to the temple of Jeff. I… I have to start some where!”

He felt excited at the prospect of a new adventure, he knew the feeling inside him wasn’t wrong. He often dreamed of a place, a beautiful place above the clouds, with so many people cheering for him and hugging him and welcoming him back. This was it! This was the meaning of the dream! He had to find out where he came from.

Jared started packing his belongings. When he looked at his parents again both of them had tears in their eyes but were looking at him proudly with a smile on their face. He went to them and hugged them. “I will always love you and I am forever grateful for everything you did for me. You will always be my mom and dad, but I have to do this! Truth is I never really belonged here, I need to find my answers! I need to find a place where I belong!”

“We understand sweetie, just be careful dear!” his mother said while she kissed his cheek.

“Go Jared, I know you will find all of your answers. I believe in ya! And remember son, you will always have home, here with us.” His dad told him and pulled him in a hug.

“I know. Thank you, thank you for everything.” Jared told them, smiling.

When he finished packing, he bid his goodbyes and started his journey. He was finally going to find out where he belonged.

***

Jared took a step out of the house and the cold breeze of the night made him shiver. He was almost on his heel to turn back inside, but NO, he thought. He must do this. This was his journey to find some answers, to find his home, to find where he belonged.

He started walking, each step faster than the other and soon he was running. Running towards a future he knew would be better and brighter. He chanted and sang all the way, feeling free and confident for first time in his life. He started humming a song.

“I will find my way

I can go the distance

I'll be there someday

If I can be strong

I know every mile

Will be worth my while

I would go most anywhere to feel like

I… Belong”

Just as Jared reached the temple of Jeff, his steps slowed down. He wasn’t feeling that confident anymore. What would he do? What would he ask for? What exactly was he looking for? What if he couldn’t find his answers? All of his fears came rushing back to him. “I HAVE TO DO THIS.” He told himself. “I’m done living in fear.”

Jared walked in the temple then and stopped at the foot of Jeff’s statue, suddenly at loss of words as to what he should say. He looked at the statue for a while. It was a huge statue, depicting Jeff sitting on his throne. Jeff’s head was held up high and both of his hands were on the throne’s handles. He had a beard, not too long but not trimmed either. Jeff’s face looked intimidating but his eyes… his eyes were kind. Jared felt like they were looking at him and deep down Jared felt like he knew that look. “Don’t be stupid” Jared thought. This was statue of Jeff, the mighty god of thunder. How on Earth Jared would know that look from before? But even with all those thoughts, Jared couldn’t silence the uneasy feeling in his gut.

“Um… Jeff?” he finally said out loud. “My name is Jared. I… I don’t know if you will see me or hear me right now. You definitely won’t have time for a commoner like me!” he laughed nervously, “but um… I’m looking for a sign, ANYTHING to find out where do I belong!” he said with a sigh.

“I…my parents, well adopted parents, gave me this necklace today. Apparently it was mine when I was a child. It has symbol of gods on it. That’s why I am now, hoping you could tell me where should I start my search?” he said while fidgeting with the necklace and tracing his fingers over the picture.

Suddenly he was startled by a loud rumbling in the sky and a huge thunderbolt hitting the Jeff’s statue. He ducked down and laid on the ground fearing that the statue might crumble down due to the thunderbolt.

“My boy, my little Jared.”

Jared was once again shocked by a deep voice saying his name, but before he could do anything he was being lifted up from the ground. He looked up and couldn’t believe what he saw. Jeff’s statue was alive, like moving and talking alive. He currently had taken hold of Jared’s collar and was lifting him up from the ground.

To say Jared was scared was an understatement. He yelled and tried to run away from the big statue. But no matter what he did, Jeff’s statue held him tight. There was no use in struggling, Jared thought his time had come. That was how he was going to die. He closed his eyes and awaited his death.

“Hey, hey kiddo! None of that.” He heard Jeff talking to him again, so he slowly opened his eyes and looked at giant face now in front of him.

“What are you doing son? Going somewhere? After all these years, what’s your hurry?” Jeff asked him, smiling at him kindly.

Jared was so confused about everything that was happening, and he was still trying to wrap his head around the idea of the huge statue coming alive when, what Jeff had said clicked in his mind.

“Wait… SON???” Jared almost shouted, a high pitched sound escaping him.

“Well of course! Is this the way you wanted to greet your father? By running away?” Jeff looked at him amused.

“F…father?”

“Didn’t know you had a famous father, did ya?” Jeff smirked at him.

Jared felt his head could explode. Everything that had happened so far was just too much for him to comprehend. When he started his journey, not in a million years, ad he ever thought that this was where it would all lead to. So he kept looking at Jeff with astonishment, mouth open, eyes wide, trying to process everything.

“Look how you’ve grown.” Jeff said softly, with hint of sadness in his voice, mourning the years he lost watching his son grow. “You have your mother’s beautiful eyes… and my strong chin.” Jeff chuckled.

“I… I don’t understand…” Jared finally found his voice, “If you’re my f..father then that would make me…”

“A god!”

“A god… A GOD? ” Jared asked confused.

“That cant be true!” Jared said when he saw Jeff nodded his head at his last question.

“Hey, didn’t you came here looking for answers? Well this is your answer. You are old enough and it’s time you know the truth.”

“So if you are my father… and I am a god then… why did you leave me on earth? Didn’t you want me?” Jared asked him quietly, the thought of his birth parents not wanting him eating at his heart.

“No, no, no! Don’t you ever say that again! Your mother and I loved you with all our heart. We were so happy when you were born, we celebrated for weeks. But one night… someone stole you away from us, my boy. They turned you mortal and because of that you couldn’t live with us on mount Olympus anymore. But we were always watching you, me and your mother, from afar. We are so proud of the man you’ve become my dear.” Jeff said while he tried to caress Jared’s face with his giant fingers.

“You couldn’t… you couldn’t turn me back?” Jared asked, still a little wary about Jeff’s explanation. After all he was the most powerful god out there.

“I couldn’t and I can’t Jared, but YOU CAN”

“Really??? H...how?? I would do anything!” Jared asked him hopefully.

“Jared, if you could prove yourself as a true hero on earth, your godhood will be restored!”

“A true hero, great! I’ll do that.” Jared said enthusiastically, but then he remembered, “Um..how do you do that actually?”

“First you must seek Philoctetes, I heard he goes as Jim Beaver these days, he is the trainer of heroes.”

“Seek out Jim okay… on my way” Jared started climbing down the statue when Jeff stopped him.

“Whoa, whoa! Hold your horses kiddo… which reminds me” Jeff snapped his fingers and a loud neigh could be heard in the sky.

Suddenly a beautiful white horse flew in the temple and landed right in front of Jared. The horse had beautiful golden wings and sweet little eyes that were looking into that of Jared’s.

“You remember Chad… you two go waaay back son!” Jeff introduced him to the horse.

Jared thought for a little while and, his mind was soon flooded with memories of him and Chad playing together. He had dreamed of holding a horse in his crib while brown eyes looked down on him. He always thought that was just a dream but now, he knew better. The horse was Chad and those brown eyes belonged to his father.

“Yes, yes I remember Chad…” he went forward and hugged Chad’s head.

“oh thank god man! For a moment I thought you forgot me.” Chad said.

‘This is new’ Jared thought. The last time he remembered meeting Chad, the horse didn’t talk.

Chad must have seen Jared’s eyes going round cause he said, “Yeah, yeah I talk, get over it man!” he then nipped at Jared’s hand playfully.

“Not complaining Chad! It certainly makes… well talking to you easier.” Jared caressed the back of his head which made Chad hum in contentment.

“He is a magnificent horse, talkative! But magnificent” Jeff remarked from his place, watching the two interact.

“Okay then we should start now! I’ll find Jim, become a real hero and will soon come back home… father!” Jared told Jeff, trying to show his love and happiness at finding where he came from, in the last word he uttered.

Jeff smiled at him kindly and said, “That’s the spirit son.”

Jared jumped on the saddle on back of Chad, held his hair in his own hand and kicked him slowly in his side, making the horse to fly.

“I won’t let you down father!” he told Jeff as Chad sped up higher in the sky.

“I know you won’t, good luck son.” Jeff told him just as another thunderbolt hit the statue and it went back to being the lifeless stone that it was.

“Okay thunder boy, where to now?” Chad asked him.

“We are going to find Jim, Chad! Jim Beaver!”

“Oh I know exactly where the old man lives! Hold on tight, this ride is about to go crazy!” Chad told him as he started flying faster into the night.

***

Jared and Chad flew few miles away, singing and talking all the way. They had 18 years to catch up on! Jared told him about his dreams and Chad in turn told him embarrassing stories from the gods above and made Jared laugh so hard, he almost chocked on laughter.

Jared was so distracted with Chad’s stories and his own thoughts that he missed Chad slowing down near a small lake.

The horse’s voice brought Jared back to reality, “So here we are Jare.”

Chad swiftly landed on the ground, “Damn I’m thirsty. “And with that he went to drink water from the lake.

"Umm, Chad? Are you sure we‘re in right place?” Jared asked him, confused with the silence around them, the fact that he couldn’t see anyone around didn’t help either.

"Yeah man…we…we sure are…your father … gave the location… to me” Chad said between gulping water.

Jared came down from the saddle and started looking around. Few steps further from the lake he saw some bushes. There was a strange sound coming out of it. Jared cautiously went near the bushes. From there he could tell it was a sound of a goat.

Jared decided to let the goat be, after all the animal couldn’t help him find Jim. He turned around and started walking back to Chad, yelling “Chad man, I think you were wrong! This place is empty, all I found was a goat…”

All breath left out of his lungs as he landed face down on the grown with a heavy weigh on his back…

“Who the hell are you calling GOAT, ya’ idjit?” a voice said from behind him.

Jared tried to struggle out of the hold but it was useless, the man had him pinned to ground. From the corner of his eyes, Jared could see Chad running towards him to help. But he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the guy say “stay there or I’ll break his neck.”

Jared knew he had to get out of this mess by himself, so he tried talking his way out of the situation. “Look… Um we are not here to fight or anything okay? We are just looking for Jim, Jim Beaver! My father sent me here so he can train me!”

“And why would he do that? You clearly aren’t good.” The guy said, snorting.

“Hey! dude, I wouldn’t talk like that to him if I were you!” Chad said from his place, clearly amused with the situation.

“Oh and Why is that, talking horse?” Jim replied, trying to tease the horse telling him what to do or not.

“Because my father is Jeff.” Jared said. He wanted to get this over with cause his limbs hurt and he could feel his hands going stiff from the guy holding them tight.

“And who the hell is Jeff?” the guy asked them, and started laughing thunderously probably after both, Chad and Jared looked at him in shocked expressions as if he was stupid for even asking that question.

“Like Jeff? THE JEFF? The god of all, Jeff? That’s your father? Wow kid I thought you were some kind of thief or something, didn’t know you were stupid!” and he continued laughing.

“HEY, I AM NOT LYING” Jared gritted under his teeth.

“Yeah? Show me then, kid? What did daddy gave ya?” he said mockingly.

Jared felt his blood boil. Lucky for him though, the guy’s hold on him was loose because he was laughing so hard. So he gathered all the power that he had and with a quick move he freed one of his hands and took hold of the guy’s hand and threw him away. The guy went flying few meters away and fell down near the lake with a loud thud.

Chad rushed up to Jared and helped him stand up. When Jared was steady on his feet he looked over the guy and could see him getting up too, but to say he was surprised was an understatement. The guy was half human and half goat. He was a satyr and when Jared observed him, he didn’t like the look on his face at all. The satyr was very red, all of his face and even his eyes were blood shot and he was looking at them with a look that promised death. Chad and Jared both took a step back, preparing to run if it comes to, since the guy was clearly trained in fighting. The satyr started walking towards them and said “Ok POWERBOY you may be freakishly strong but it takes a lot more than that to convince me you are Jeff’s son, and if you can’t I’m gonna gut you and that talking horse here and now!”

“Look Mr…. Um Mr. Satyr we don’t … look I have a necklace with mount Olympus on it ok? I can show you that.” Jared said while taking a step back with every step that satyr took.

“That still ain’t proof. It just shows that I was right & you ARE a thief.”

“Oh so what? You wont believe anything he says huh? Not unless Jeff himself comes down and shoves that Jared is his son in your stupid head?” Chad told him angrily.

“You know what yeah! That will be good idea. If you really are who you say you are, sure daddy wouldn’t mind showing off his boy to others now, would he?” Satyr said smirking at them.

Jared finally stood still in his place, suddenly feeling confident. It was crazy but even in that short moment with Jeff, he knew his father will have his back so he looked up at the sky and said, “Ok father, um…. I need your help right now! This guy thinks I’m a liar and a thief and no matter what I say he wouldn’t believe that we are related! So Um.. if you please show him that you are my father, that would be great.”

When his little speech was over, Jared held his breath for any sign to happen to prove his word, but with every second that passed he was losing his confidence and getting disappointed.

After few seconds in silence, which felt like ages to Jared, the satyr looked at him mockingly and said “Aw what happened pretty boy? Daddy’s not home?” and started laughing.

But when he started walking towards Chad and Jared again, a dark cloud in the sky formed, getting bigger and bigger by the moment. And then it all happened in a second. A huge thunderbolt hit the tree just few steps behind the satyr, lighting it up. The grey cloud was gone after that as fast as it appeared. The satyr looked at the scene in front of him with huge eyes and murmured under his breath “It can’t be!”

Shocked, he slowly turned towards Jared and Chad and said “You really ARE Jeff’s son aren’t you?”

“That’s what he’s been trying to tell you , you idiot.” Chad told him proudly.

“Yes, Yes I am!” Jared said, coming closer to the satyr as he spoke, “ now can you please, please tell us where Jim lives? I really need him to train me ! I need to become a real hero so I can meet my family again!” he said pleadingly.

“I can’t say lucky you son, Cause I AM Jim, but I don’t do that anymore!”

“You are Jim?” both Chad and Jared spoke at the same time, astonished.

“Yes, yes… I am him, he is me! The famous hero trainer, Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus. A lot of ‘Yeuseus’.”

“Wow you trained all of them?” Jared asked with amusement.

“Yeah! And every single one of those bums let me down…flatter than a discus. None of'em could go to the distance. And then there was Achilles. Now there was a guy who had it all, the build, the foot speed. He could jab. He could take a hit. He could keep on. But that "furshlugginer" heel of his. He barely gets nicked there once and kaboom! He's history.”

“But I’m different Jim. I really am! I can do this, I can go to distance. My father is Zeus, the god of thunder himself. That’s my difference with all the others.” Jared said while following Jim down the hill. “Please Jim…that’s my dream! Didn’t you have a dream?”

Jim suddenly stopped in his track, after a few seconds he said “ Yeah, I had a dream once. I dreamed I was gonna train the greatest hero there ever was. So great, that the gods would hang a picture of him in the stars...all across the sky and people would say ‘That's Phil's boy.’ but dreams are for rookies. A guy can only take so much disappointment.”

“I wont disappoint you Jim, I CAN DO THIS. Come on let me show you!” Jared said while running towards a giant bolder.

“Geez you won’t quit kid will ya?”

Jared picked up the giant bolder and threw it away, so far that it actually became like tiny stone. Jim looked at the scene with an open mouth, “Holly Hera kid, you really are different!” he said at last.

“So you will do it?” Jared asked hopefully.

“Okay , you win! Gods I’m too old to get mixed up in these things!” Jim said with a sigh.

Jared and Chad started dancing around and high fiving each other. While Jim muttered under his breath how he will regret this later. When finally Jared and Chad came down from their dance party, Jared asked “So when do we start? Can we start now?”

“I don’t see why not, but first we need to get the training area ready, it’s been a while since I used it.”

Jim along with Jared and Chad started walking towards a huge field, full of equipment for training heroes, figures to use instead of damsels in distress, and lots and lots of different weapons.

Jared was in awe, he looked around and thought I’m coming home father.

For 2 years Jared and Chad stayed at Jim’s, training day and night. If someone saw Jared now they wouldn’t have believed he was the same scrawny kid. Now he was a man with huge muscles and built body. Now he just needed to prove to everyone else that he was a real hero!

“Okay so you are ready in training field kid, but its time you show yourself off in the real world.” Jim told him one day while he was preparing food.

“Yes, I’m more than ready for that Jim, go out, find a damsel in distress, rescue them, become a real hero and go to the distance.” Jared said jumping from his chair and waking up Chad who was sleeping beside the table.

“Geez Jare, do you mind? I need my beauty sleep man!” Chad told him, grumpy.

“Sorry Man! I’m just so excited. I can finally become a real hero, go to the distance and meet my family.”

“Not so fast kid! There are more to being a real hero that just rescuing damsels in distress.” Jim told him while he put the plate in front of him.

“Wha’ …should… we do… den?” Jared asked him with a mouth full of food.

“Well first, not to speak with your mouth full.” Jared mumbled a quiet sorry under his breath, “and the… we should go to Thebes!” Jim said.

“So what’s in Thebes?” Chad asked with a frown, confused.

“Lots of problems!” Jim said with a smirk.

***

Soon they all were ready to go to Thebes. Jared took his favorite sword and Jim packed some food for the road. When everything was ready Jim looked at Chad and Jared and said: “Ok we have two days trip to Thebes, if we begin tomorrow morning we can find a shelter in the jungle by night…”

"Woah, woah, woah what do you mean 2 days trip?” Chad cut him off.

"That’s exactly what I mean, will you keep up?!” Jim said angrily, clearly not so happy about being cut off.

"Dude, it’s a two days trip to Thebes by foot.” Chad said looking pointedly at Jim.

"Exactly, so…”

“Oh my gods! You really don’t get it do you? We don’t need to go by foot, we have me.” Chad said, smirking.

"Oh no, no, no! There is no way I’m gonna travel by air, much less with someone like you!” Jim said horrified by the suggestion.

"Oh come on Jim, Chad is not that bad…” He was met with a pointed glare from Jim and he gave in, “well.. when he tries! Plus this way we are two days ahead of the schedule.” Jared pleaded.

"NO, I said no and that’s final. I’m not gonna put my life in Chad’s hands. No further discussion” Jim tried to finish the discussion but he already knew he was in trouble when he saw the funny looks on Jared and Chad’s face.

XXXX

Jim was clutching on to Jared like a life line, although he would later totally deny it. Chad was fully aware of poor man’s problem and was taking extra care to ensure he poked Jim’s fear and made it his mission to at least make him faint. As soon as they left the ground he started teasing him with going up and down in the sky and doing loops in the air, making Jim curse like a dirty sailor. Jared had put a stop to it when Jim’s hold on his waist had become absolutely unbearable and he was sure he might have few bruises from Jim digging his mails deep into his skin.

They were getting near Thebes when suddenly a loud yell gained their attention. Chad stopped mid air and looked back at Jared, “Did you hear that man? That might be your chance!”

The way Jared looked at Chad showed that he had the same train of thoughts. “Now, now wait you two, we need to assess... WOAAAH” Jim’s word were cut off when Chad suddenly started landing on the ground with rush just to make him more miserable.

When they landed, Jared hoped off of Chad as fast as he could and started running towards the way the sound of someone swearing and struggling was coming through. Jim was still sitting on Chad’s back trying to hold his balance and not actually vomit. Chad looked back at him and smirked and started following behind Jared.

When Jared passed a line of trees and bushes, he came across a beautiful lake and a waterfall behind it. But that wasn’t what made him hold his breath. There in the middle of the lake was the most gorgeous man he’d ever seen, being held by a giant centaur.

The guy was clearly trying to struggle against the monster’s hold but so far it seemed in vain.

"Now, beautiful, why don’t you stop fighting huh? You came here with a deal and I said I would do what you want of me sugar! But you need to hold your end of the bargain.” The monster told the man with lustful voice. Jared was getting sick just from the way the creature was looking at the man.

"And I told you no, Nessus! I don’t care that much about the deal. Now let me down at once” The man shot back

"No way sugar, you will do what I want either you liked it or not…” The monster said and brought his lips closer to the man. Jared felt he couldn’t stand and watch it any more. “HEY.” he yelled.

Both, the monster, Nessus, and the guy turned and look at him with questionable looks in their eyes, making Jared suddenly feel like the shy, lanky 18 year old version of himself, “Um, I .. I command you to … to put this man down…now. “He continued, clearly hesitating.

The monster looked him up and down for few seconds and then started laughing hard, the guy in his hold seemed unfazed though. He looked at Jared and said, “Look boy, you really should go before this stupid creature does something stupid to you.”

Jared was confused, did he really read the situation wrong? “But, but aren’t you like a damsel in distress?” he whispered slowly hoping only the man hear him.

"I’m NOT a damsel,” The guy seemed offended at that, but then he mulled over what Jared said and smirked as he continued, “I'm a damoiseau, I'm in distress, I can handle it.” He smiled sweetly at Jared then, too cocky for the situation he was in

"Ok pretty boy, that was a good laugh now leave us alone….” Nessus sneered at Jared.

Jared looked back at were Chad and Jim were standing. They were looking at him expectantly. Jared turned back to Nessus and said: “ Sorry.. um… sir! But you have to do as I told.”

"Ok, you asked for it lets get this over with.” Nessus warned and before Jared could actually understand what was going on he punched him right in the chest and made him fly a few feet back.

Jared felt like all the air had left his lungs and he was dizzy. Jim and Chad rushed over him and started assessing him closely to see if he was hurt or not. Other than few cuts here and there Jared was miraculously fine. He slowly started getting back his balance and finally stood up.

As soon as he was up, Jim slapped him on the face and said: “What the hell you were thinking, you idgit! He is much bigger than you and much more stronger. You need to find his weakness, just like we practiced, use your head kid.”

Suddenly Jared had an idea, “Yeah… use my head.” He said, his voice dreamy.

He started taking a few more steps backwards and then started running straight in direction of the creature. They were standing in the middle of the lake so he had enough time to gain the speed he needed, thankfully the water was shallow enough for him to run like a jaguar and when he got close to Nessus he bent a little and Boom… he struck full force into his stomach, making the centaur fall down on his back and lose his grip on the guy which also made him to fall down too, but right before the guy hit water Jared held him mid air, bridal style.

When Jared looked at the guy’s face he once more felt like the air had rushed out of his lungs but for a whole different reason, “Wow your eyes are really green!” he couldn’t stop himself from blurting out his thoughts.

The guy chuckled and said, “Well you aren’t bad yourself either, Wonder boy!”

But before Jared had time to say anything or even blush, he saw Nessus struggling to get up and finally he stood on his four legs and was now charging towards them. He realised he still was holding the guy and he had his hands around Jared’s neck so Jared quickly looked around and found a big rock next to the river, he ran towards the rock and asked the guy to remain seated there, “just wait here for a moment.” Jared told him.

Just as Nessus was getting near them, Jared made a fist and put all his power into it and punched Nessus right under his chin, making him wobbly on his feet.

Chad and Jim were cheering for Jared all the way and when they saw the guy was looking at Jared with huge eyes they decided to get closer, to see what was going on and more importantly talk about Jared. After all, the more people talked about him the better, he needed all the attention.

The man’s eyes were super fixed on Jared and the fight going on in front of him when Chad nudged his shoulder and made him startle. When he looked at them he calmed down realizing they were the ones who were talking with Jared before.

"Is he for real?” the man asked them.

"He sure is and he is ma’ man, kicking ass” Chad told him happily which shocked Jensen for a second time in matter of minutes.

"Yeah, sure. Wonder boy has a talking horse.” The guy mumbled to himself.

"And who are you, young man?” Jim asked finally, while his focus was mostly on Jared, making sure he was alright.

"Jensen.”

But before they could talk more, Nessus punched Jared rather hard and he fell back where they were all standing. Nessus apparently had had it with this fight so he walked to a dried tree to the side of river. Jim figured he wanted to smash Jared with that thing so he ran towards him and held Jared’s face in his hand and said, “ Ok, listen up kid, you fought perfectly but now its time to finish it. He is taller than you which means the best spot to take him down is his feet, so remember,” Jim made some hand gestures, “ your sword, his feet.” Jared nodded his head in understanding and darted towards Nessus again.

Nessus tried to smash him with the tree but Jared made a swift move, bent his legs and dodged the blow. He then took out his sword and cut two of his legs, which made Nessus howl in pain and fall down on his knees, Taking advantage of the situation, Jared quickly pierced his sword through his heart.

For few seconds, the only sound that was made was by the birds chirping in the forest untill it dawned on everyone what just happened. Chad and Jim started cheering Jared’s name and rushed towards him to hug him, Jared himself was so happy, he kept asking, “Did you see that? Did you see me? I just killed my first monster.” And Jensen, well Jensen was standing silently at the back. He was shocked over the turn of events and was amazed of this young boy with the color changing eyes and the strength he had.

When Jared’s eyes met Jensen’s, he slowly got away from Chad and Jim and started walking towards him. When they were few inches apart, Jared looked him up and down, trying to find if the man was bruised anywhere and asked “ Are you ok?”

"I should ask you that wonder boy!” he told Jared which made him chuckle and nervously rub his neck.

Jensen wasn’t sure why his heart was pounding harder in his heart or why he was blushing like a teenager meeting his crush. No snap out of it Jensen, you know this will only end in one thing. He thought.

"You had quite a blow there wonder boy.” Jensen composed himself and headed back towards the jungle with Jared and others following him.

"Jared.”

"What was that?”

"My name is Jared, I’m not…I’m not what you said I am.” Jared told him, blush creeping up on his face.

Jensen looked back at the boy who was suddenly looking few years younger. “You sure are wonder boy, wonder boy!” he winked at Jared.

"You, um …you shouldn’t be alone by yourself here, it’s dangerous…” Jared continued.

"Jensen, my name is Jensen! And don’t worry, Jared I can handle myself, I’m a though guy.” Jensen told him while he flexed his biceps to emphasize on his point, which brought out another chuckle from Jared.

"Yeah right, you could’ve definitely handled Nessus by yourself.” Jared teased him.

"Well, now we’ll never know, will we?” Jensen asked him. "But as fun as this was, wonder boy, I have to go now and I believe you have some business to do too.” Jensen said looking past him at Chad and Jim who were giving Jared a stink eye for ignoring them over a stranger.

"Um yeah we were going to Thebes, I need to prove myself as a true hero so I can go to the distance.” Jared was explaining excitedly when suddenly a rock hit his head. “OWWWWW”

"Well now boy, don’t bug Jensen with your chit chat like you do us. It was nice meeting you Jensen but as you said we all need to get going.” Jim shot back at them, somewhat angrily.

"You .. um , you can come with us if you want you know.” Jared asked Jensen his voice and expressions on his face full of hope while he was still rubbing his head from where Jim had stuck him with a rock.

But before Jensen could answer, Chad yelled “OH HELL NO. I’m already carrying you and your teacher’s heavy ass, I ain’t carrying anyone more!” and he flew up to sit on a branch, clearly miffed.

"Chaaaad,” Jared said wanting to scold his stud for forgetting his manners but Jensen stopped him.

"Don’t worry Jared, I’m not going to Thebes anyway, too much trouble for my liking!” Jensen winked at him again and he continued “but I wish you best of luck, wonder boy.”

Jensen turned to walk when Jared’s hands stopped him. “Wait…” He looked back and saw Jared was holding his hands and was looking pleadingly in his eyes. His heart skipped a bit, it was so long since anyone looked at him like that. He took a deep breath to calm himself and spoke, “ What is it, wonder boy?”

"Am I… I mean… can I maybe see you again, like can you tell me where can I find you?” Jared asked him shyly.

"We’ll meet again wonder boy, if fate wants us too.” Jensen slowly released his hand from Jared’s grip and it took all of his power to start walking again.

Just when Jared wanted to protest gain Jim and Chad, obviously aware of the distraction that Jensen was, got into motion and with quick move Jim started pushing Jared towards Chad and before he knew it they were flying up in sky again.

Jim was scolding him and telling him he can’t go all “lovey dovey over the first goo-goo eyes that he sees” but Jared’s mind was elsewhere. He was far busy thinking about those sparkling green eyes.

XXXX

Jensen watched Chad fly away with Jared and sighed quietly, truly hoping Jared gets what he wants in Thebes. Meeting the younger man had shifted something inside Jensen’s heart, but he wasn’t aware of it yet.

He started walking deeper into jungle when suddenly everything went dark, a black fog started forming around him and Jensen could sense the trouble before he saw him.

"Hello Mark!” Jensen sneered.

"Jen, my wonderful doll, Jen. You wanna tell me what exactly happened there? If I remember correctly I sent you to make the river monster my ally and now here I am, monster less.” Mark snickered at him.

"He asked for a price I had to refuse.” Jensen shot back.

"And what was the price my sugar?” Mark asked him while caressing his face, which always made Jensen’s stomach hurl at the touch.

"Me, he wanted to rape me.” Jensen said quietly.

"And?”

"AND? ARE YOU CRAZY? I’m not your pet Mark, for you to lend me to other creatures to get your deals done.” Jensen yelled at him which soon found out was a very bad idea. He suddenly held Jensen’s hand in a tight grip and said: “as far as I know Jensen you are! I tell you what to do AND YOU DO IT”

Jensen could tell he was getting angrier by the minute because the color of his eyes was turning yellow but he soon controlled himself and asked Jensen “Now what you told me still doesn’t explain why he’s dead.”

"That wasn’t my fault. This wonder boy showed up thinking I’m a damsel in distress.” Jensen told him while he tried to hide his smile remembering Jared.

"Wonder boy?”

"Yeah Jared or something… he was super strong and a very skilled fighter. He….”Jensen suddenly realised something was really wrong as he observed Mark’s breath was labored and his eyes were now totally red.

"MISHA! MOOSHA!” Mark yelled angrily.

The two minion got out of their hiding behind an old tree.

"Yes sir?” they said slowly.

"What was the name of this Wonder boy again Jenny dear? “Mark asked Jensen

"Jared.”

"Now you two IDIOTS you said you took care of that boy right? Jeff’s son? You said he is dead as a door nail? Weren’t those your exact words?” Mark lashed out at the two idiots standing in front of him and when Misha and Moosha nodded their heads Mark gripped them by their collars and continued “THEN WHY IS THIS STRONG BOY NAMED JARED RUINING MY PLANS?”

"This could be a different Jared you know, Jared is a very popular name,” Misha said trying hard to get Mark to believe the and escape from a punishment he was definite would be handed down to both of them.

"Here I'm about to rearrange the cosmos and the one schlemiel who can louse it up, IS WALTZING AROUND IN THE WOODS!” As soon as Mark was done yelling everything around them was on fire.

"But , but sire we can still cut in on his waltzing, I mean we actually did made him mortal, that is good right?” Moosha told Mark.

Mark thought it through for few seconds and when his eyes landed on Jensen he continued, “Fortunately for the three of you, we still have some time to correct this rather egregious oversight. And this time, no foul-ups” Mark warned, an evil glint in his eyes which were now back to normal.

Jensen didn’t like that look one bit.

*****

When Jared and others reached Thebes, Chad slowly landed in a silent and small alley. When they landed, Jim looked at them and said: “Okay listen up, this is Thebes, the most troublesome city in whole cosmos. It’s full of thieves, full of murderers and most importantly full of beggars. So stay close together, don’t let anyone get near you and most importantly don’t talk to anybody not unless I tell you.”

Chad and Jared looked at each other, worried but nodded their heads nonetheless.

As soon as they were out of the alley and on the main street a man with dirty clothes and a long worn out overcoat stepped in front of them, “Hello good sir, would you want a watch?” and he opened his coat showing all kinds of watches hanging there. “NO pal, thanks and back off.” Jim sneered at the guy, disgusted at his features and irritated by disturbing them from their quest.

Soon again another person approached them and started touching Chad’s wings and said, “ Wow, you have such an incredible horse, I’ll give you 100 drachmas for it.” The guy said, full of awe at seeing a beautiful horse like Chad.

Jared was quick to rebuff, “No he is not for sale.”

“How about 200?” the guy insisted and Jared rejected him again. It seemed the man didn’t get the memo and continued to offer a bigger price, “300?” Jared had had it with him as he turned and yelled “I SAID HE IS NOT FOR SALE, BACK OFF” That did the trick but Chad looked taken back by the whole scene and started walking closer to Jared seeking protection.

They were disturbed many times by some other beggars and charlatans trying to sell them cheap stuff. When they finally got to the city’s big square, they saw many people wandering around each, going after their own problems. A small group of people were standing near the fountain in the middle of the square, washing their clothes. Jim motioned them to walk closer.

When they were few feet away from the people near the fountain, they could hear them talking.

“It was tragic! We lost everything in the fire.” A guy said.

“Everything except old Snowball here.” A woman ,probably his wife said, lifting what looked like to be a cat but now the poor creature just looked like a skin on skeleton.

“Now, were the fires before or after the earthquake?” another guy asked them.

“They were after the earthquake. I remember.” The woman replied.

“But before the flood.” Her husband added.

“Don't even get me started on the crime rate.” A big fat man told all of them.

“Thebes has certainly gone downhill in a hurry.”

“Tell me about it.”

“It seems like every time I turn around there's some new monster wreaking havoc and looks like all we need now is a plague of locusts.” The fat guy said.

“That's it! I'm movin' to Sparta!” the woman said.

Jared couldn’t wait any longer to show what he was capable of, already eager to get on with his quest, ”Excuse me.” He interrupted.

At once, everyone turned around and looked at them.

“It, uh seems to me that what you folks need is a hero.” Jared continued.

“Yeah, and who are you?” the fat guy asked him.

“I'm Jared, and uh I happen to be a hero.” Jared told him.

“Is that so? A hero!” he asked skeptically, “Have you ever saved a town before?” he asked Jared.

“Uh, no. Uh, not exactly, but I...” Jared stuttered to answer.

“Have you ever reversed a natural disaster?” the fat guy asked again.

“Well, uh, no.”

“Oh, listen to this guy, he’s just another chariot chaser. He is right this is exactly what we need. A good laugh.” The guy sneered and they all laughed at Jared, making him look sheepish and stepping a few feet back embarrassed by not being experienced enough to at least make them see what he could do.

Suddenly Jim was in front of him, “Don't you pea brains get it? This kid is the genuine article.”

“Hey, isn't that the goat-man who trained Achilles?” the first guy asked pointing at Jim.

“Watch it, pal.” Jim snarled at him

“Yeah, you're right. Hey, uh, nice job on those heels! Ya’ missed a spot!” the fat guy said and started laughing at Jim again.

Jared could see Jim’s face was getting redder by the minute, “I'll wipe that stupid grin off your face! You...” Jim said and then everything happened so fast Jared almost missed it.

Jim growled and jumped on and started beating him. Chad and Jared rushed towards them to help the poor guy from Jim’s wrath.

“Hey, Jim! Jim! Jim!” Jared tried to calm the man while holding Jim’s hands behind and pulling him back from pouncing on the man again.

“What are you, crazy? Sheesh.” The fat guy said from where he was standing behind the woman, scared.

“Young man, we need a professional hero, not an amateur.” The woman sneered at Jared and the all went on their own ways.

“Well, wait. Stop!” Jared urged the people who walked away, trying to gain their attention again but to no luck. “How am I supposed to prove myself a hero, if nobody will give me a chance?” Jared mumbled under his breath, dejected by the whole thin and sat on the edge of the fountain.

Jim looked at the hunched shoulders and heard the dejection in the tone of the boy he trained to be a fighter. There was no way he was going to let Jared think of himself as anything other than the hero that he was. He sat down next to him and softly spoke, trying to encourage the guy. “You'll get your chance. You just need some kind of catastrophe or disaster.”

As soon as Jim’s sentence was over they all heard a familiar voice. They turned towards the direction where the voice was coming from and saw a man calling for help.

“Please. Help! Please! There's been a terrible accident!” Jensen was there, standing by the street, begging the people passing by for help.

Jared was on his feet the moment he heard Jensen’s voice, “Jensen?” he rushed towards him, totally ignoring Jim’s mumbled words “speaking of disaster.”

When Jensen spotted Jared he ran towards him and held to his arms like a life line, “Oh Wonder boy, Jared. Thank goodness I found you.”

“What happened Jensen?” Jared asked him, concerned.

“Oh! Outside of town, two little boy.” Jensen spoke, out of breath, trying to speak everything at once. “ Th… They were playing in the cave. Th… There was this rock slide, a terrible rock slide. They're trapped!” Jensen informed him all while trying to control his breath.

“Kids? Trapped? Jim, this is great!” An excited Jared looked back at Jim with huge grin on his face.

“Wow, You’re really choked up about this, aren't ya?” Jensen asked him confused about his reaction to terrible accident.

“Come on!” Jared tugged his hand, totally oblivious to the snarky comment, and pulled him towards Chad.

Jensen tried struggling to get out of his hold but it was useless, “No, I... You don't understand, I, I have this terrible fear of…” but before Jensen had a chance to finish his sentence Jared grabbed him by his waist and put him on Chad’s back. Jared soon followed behind him with Jim on his toe and just as they were all seated, Chad took off with a swift move from the ground which was combined with Jensen screaming out loud.

All the people around them already knew that this new boy in town wanted to save two trapped kids and soon the word travelled around and whole city was aware of the news. They all followed after this “wonder boy” and his crew to the fields out of town where the cave was, all eager to see how this day will end. Will they get a new hero or is this just another false hope?

XXXXXX

When Jared and others got to the mountain side outside of city, Jensen barely picked his head from between Jared’s shoulders and showed a giant rock lying on the ground and stuttered “Th….there”

Chad followed the direction Jensen was pointing at. It was a field, sort of like a valley but only two sides were surrounded by giant rocks and a stone wall. The rest of the plain was surrounded by small hills, making the field look like an arena. They could see a giant rock near one of the stone walls. Jared figured there was the cave’s opening. He signaled Chad and they leaped down and landed near the rock. As soon as they landed, Jared rushed to the rock trying to lift it from the ground. He heard Jensen saying “I’ll … I’ll need to walk a little wonder boy, I think I’m going to be sick.” Jared nodded his head but his focus was solely on the task in front of him, that is trying to find a perfect grip on the rock. That’s why he missed Jensen whispering “Be safe wonder boy.”

With a little bit of struggle, Jared finally found the perfect angle to lift the rock and he started pulling the rock and with a bit of an effort he lifted the rock above.

Jim and Chad cheered for Jared when he turn around, but his focus was on the people who were all around the field or staying on the hills, who were clapping for him. That was his hope, helping as many people as he can, he thought. Maybe there is still hope for him to sail the great distance and meet his family. He smiled at that and threw the rock far away, which lead them into another round of applause.

Jared turned back at the c and slowly approached in there , “Hello? Anybody here?”

He heard two whimpers coming from the deep cave. “Come here you are safe now, you can come out” Jared said softly as to not startle the kids.

Soon there was two sets of legs coming out of the dark and the moment they saw Jared, they latched onto his legs, “Jeepers Mister, did you lift the rock?” one of the kids asked and when Jared nodded his head he continued, “Wow, you are so strong!” the kid said with awe.

Jared crouched down near the kids and said, “Just try to be more careful next time okay.”

"We sure will.” The other boy said and started running towards one of the hills. “Thanks for your help, Mister.” The both chimed in at the same time.

Jared chuckled at the excitement of the kids and walked to where Jim and Chad were standing. “Well I guess that wasn’t so bad for my first day at Thebes huh?”

"Boy you did great, now at least people saw what you are capable of, plus you helped two little boys, how’s that feel?” Jim asked, with a hint of pride in his voice.

Jared smiled and said, “Good, really good!” He was feeling really good because he’d not only helped the boys, he had saved their lives too. Who knows what would have happened to them had they been trapped there forever. The bubble of happiness didn’t last long though as a few mintes later, they heard a loud and scary growl coming from within the cave which shocked them.

XXXXX

“Stirring performance, boys.” Mark said, sitting on his chair high on the hill to Misha and Moosha. “I was really moved.”

"Jeepers, mister"? Misha asked with a questionable look at his partner while transforming back into his hideous self.

"I was going for innocence.” Moosha spat back.

"But hey, one thumb way, way up for our leading monsieur. What a dish. What a doll.” Mark said while squeezing Jensen’s cheek who was standing by his side. “Now lets get ready to RUMBLE.” He said happily.

Jensen got away from Marks hand and whispered under his breath, “Get outta there, ya big lug, while ya still can.”

XXXXX

Jared, Jim and Chad were standing near the cave’s opening, trying to figure out what that growl was and they were all taken back when a pair of huge red eyes looked at them from deep within the cave.

Jared was rooted at his place “J-J-Jim? What do you call that thing?” he asked.

“Two words, NOT GOOD,” he yelled while quickly jumping on to back of Chad and getting as far from the cave as they could. “GET YOU ASS BACK HERE, JARED” Jim’s yell broke Jared’s shell and he started running as fast as his legs could carry him.

When he looked back he saw a giant dragon like creature crawling out of the cave. Damn he was so screwed, Jared thought.

Jared took out his sword just as the monster was few feet away from him. The dragon started attacking him. He tried to defend the attacks with his sword as best as he could.

Jared heard Jim instructing him from the stone he and Chad were standing on. “That's it. Dance around! Dance around. Watch the teeth! Watch the teeth! Keep going. Come on. Come on.”

Jared tried his best to follow the instructions. Suddenly Jared lost his balance and fell down, his sword falling a good distance away from him. The monster chose that exact moment to attack him with his huge teeth. Jared blocked his attack by grabbing the monster’s teeth and one swift punch to it’s head. The punch hit the creature hard and his moves became shaky, giving enough time to Jared to get his sword back.

Taking advantage of the disoriented creature, Jared ran over to where his sword was and bent to pick it up when he felt something wet crawl around his ankle. When he looked down he saw the creature’s tongue was around his foot and before he could free himself from it, the creature tightened it’s hold on Jared’s feet and threw him up in the air, opening its mouth wide, making him fall right down the monster’s throat.

Everyone went dead silent around the field. Jim was stunned to silence, not wanting to believe what he saw. There goes another one. Just like Achilles, Jim thought. The only sound was Chad’s loud yell “NOOOOOO.” Even Jensen was shocked to see that the dimpled boy whom somehow filled his heart with weird feelings, got out of the game that way, he didn’t know why but he felt his heart tighten at what he saw.

A moment later, the creature let out a loud wail. There was something in his throat trying to push free. Before anyone could understand what was happening the creature’s throat was cut off completely and it fell down, it’s head spinning few feet away.

The crowd started cheering harder this time, all of them clapping and chanting Jared’s name, when they saw him crawl out of creature’s body and standing up near the it’s body.

Jared was there, Jim couldn’t believe what he was watching but he observed his disciple was standing there covered in saliva. Jared walked towards Jim , a bit shaky and he looked a little woozy on his feet but he managed to get near Jim anyhow, breathing hard and said “See, Jim? That... That wasn't so hard.” And he fell down right in front of Jim’s feet.

Jim and Chad rushed toward his side. “Kid, kid, kid. How many fingers do you see?” Jim asked holding two fingers up.

“Six?” Jared asked him back, kind of out of it.

“Eh, close enough.” Jim said while helping Jared up with Chad.

“Damn, man, you scared me to death. Let's get you cleaned up, cause no offence, Jay man, but you reek!” Chad told him.

They were so engulfed in looking after Jared that they missed the twitches in the monster’s body.

XXXXX

Misha and Moosha were breathing so hard trying to find a place to hide from Mark’s wrath for losing his favorite pet.

Jensen was nervous too, he knew what Mark could do but he couldn’t help the . on his face when he saw Jared standing in the middle of the field over the monster’s dead body.

They were all startled out of their thoughts when Mark said “Guys, guys, relax. It's only halftime” and he smirked.

Jensen felt a shiver ran through his body hearing Mark’s words.

XXXXX

Chad, Jim and Jared came out of their victory haze when they heard loud crinkling noises from behind them. “That doesn’t sound good,” Chad mumbled while all three of them slowly turned around to see the monster’s body standing up and now, there were three heads in the place of the one before.

“DEFINITELY NOT GOOD!” Jim shouted while he gave Jared’s sword in his hand and ran over to the place he was before.

This time Jared hopped on Chad’s back and started flying around the monsters head trying to find a right angle and exact part to attack.

Each time one of the heads attacked him Jared either dodged the attack or cut the head off.

He heard Jim yelling at him “ WILL YOU FORGET THE HEAD_SLICING THING?” and he was right, each time he cut a head off two more grew back in its place and now he was looking at a monster with dozen heads.

Jared had a quick flashback at his trainings and realised this thing was a hydra! Even though no one have seen them in years but here he was fighting one in the most stupid way possible. I am so dumb, Jared thought.

That little moment of distraction was enough for one of the heads to attack him and Chad. Jared lost his balance on Chad and fell down in the pile of heads and necks, he slid down the necks and punched which ever head that came near him.

The monster seemed like it had had enough. It captured Jared with its hand and pinned him to the stone wall behind them.

Jared struggled to get out of the Hydra’s hold but it was useless. Dozens of red eyes were looking at him hungrily and just when the monster decided to attack Jared, he had an idea. He fisted his hands together and punched the stone wall as hard as he could. Jared’s punch made a rift in the wall, making it collapse and fall down on the monster with Jared still in it’s grip.

The dead silence was back for second time that day, everyone were looking at the pile of stones that used to be the place the monster stayed. The only thing left of it was the monsters fist that peeked out of the stone pile, the hand that was holding Jared till the last moment.

“Come on, Come on kid.” Jim pleaded under his breath.

At that moment the monsters fist jolted few times and finally opened with a crinkling noise and Jared stood tall. Jim started jumping up and down on the stone “YES, YES, YES, WAY TO GO KID.” And ran towards Jared.

Chad rushed to Jared and started licking his face “I know this is yucky man but I thought I lost you today, twice. I’ve earned some licking!” Hearing Chad’s words made Jared giggle.

People went crazy with joy and started running towards the field. When they were standing close to Jared, they lifted him up on their heads and started walking towards city , chanting “Our Hero” or “Our Savior” with Jim and Chad walking near Jared.

Jared looked at Jim and said, “Yeah, gotta admit, that WAS pretty heroic”

“You did it kid, you did it, you are on your way to go to the distance. Mount Olympus here we come. ” Jim said with a wink.

XXXXX

“Mark’s mad,” Misha said, trembling with fear, from his hiding place behind a rock.

Mark was breathing heavily, his eyes had turned complete red and he looked like he was ready to kill anyone who dared to say anything.

Jensen looked at him and smiled to himself. “Well done, Wonder Boy,” he whispered under his breath, looking at Jared who was being carried by the crowd.

*****

The Swainers rejoiced for Jared. “Well, what do you know? From that day forward, our boy Jared could do no wrong.” Rob mentioned.

Billy said, ” He was so hot, steam looked cool.” A dreamy look in his eyes.

Borja agreed.

Once again, as on cue, the Swainers started singing

Bless my soul Jay was on a roll

Person of the week in every Greek opinion poll

\- What a pro - Jay could stop a show

Point him at a monster and you're talkin' SRO

\- He was a no one - A zero, zero

\- Now he's a honcho - He's a hero

Here was a kid with his act down pat

Zero to hero in no time flat

\- Zero to hero - Just like that

When he smiled the girls went wild

With oohs and aahs

And they slapped his face on every vase

On every "vahse"

From appearance fees and royalties

Our Jay had cash to burn

Now nouveau riche and famous

He could tell you what's a Grecian urn

Say amen There he goes again

\- Sweet and undefeated - And an awesome ten for ten

Folks lined up just to watch him flex

And this perfect package packed a pair of pretty pecs

Jared, he comes He sees, he conquers

Honey, the crowds were goin' bonkers

\- He showed the moxie brains and spunk - Yeah

\- From zero to hero - A major hunk

\- Zero to hero - And who'd have thunk

Who put the glad in gladiator

Hercules

Whose Darin ‘deeds are great theatre

Hercules

\- Isn't he bold - No one braver

\- Is he sweet - Our favorite flavor

\- Hercules - My man.

\- Hercules - Hercules

\- Hercules - Ooh

\- Hercules - Look at my Hercules

\- Hercules, Hercules - Yeah, yeah, yeah

Bless my soul Jay was on a roll

\- Undefeated - Riding high

\- And the nicest guy. - Not conceited

\- He was a nothing - A zero, zero

\- Now he's a honcho - He's our hero

He hit the heights at breakneck speed

From zero to hero

Jay is a hero

Now he's a hero

Yes, indeed

*******

Jared soon became one of the most famous person in whole of Greece. He killed many monsters who sowed up near Thebes, saving the lives of people. Even though he never asked for money, people insisted on paying him for his good deeds and the tales of his fights spread far and wide. He became so popular that the king himself ordered to build a palace at Thebes for the “New Hero” of Greece.

Now, almost six months after killing the Hydra, Jared was living a life of luxury, resting in his castle with girls and boys falling over his feet at every minute of the day. He even bought a bigger house for his Earth parents so they didn’t need to work on their farm anymore, there were people to do that for them. Everywhere he was the talk of the town, people praised him for his power and his good heart. Every one wanted a picture of his face plastered on their merchandise because they knew it would sell more. His face was also plastered on vases and plates. If some one would have told his 18 year old self that this was going to be his life, never in a million years, would he have believed it. He even had his own fan base, for crying out loud! And a very persistent one at that. It had become one of Jim’s responsibilities to throw out the crazy girls and boys climbing up his palace walls to get a chance to meet their hero at least once.

But no matter what happened, no matter how much money he had, how many people he saved, how many monsters he killed, it just looked like he couldn’t find the peace and calm he craved. His mind was very much occupied with thoughts of his parents, of why they hadn’t said anything to him so far, of why his father hadn’t called him back to mount Olympus yet. So he decided to bring matters in his own hand. He needed to talk with his father.

XXXX

Mark was furious to say the least. All of his plans, all of his efforts had gone down the drain since Jared came into the picture. He was walking up and down in his lair, trying to come up with a new plan but his mind was clouded with anger.

“I can't believe this guy. I throw everything I've got at him and it doesn't even...” Mark was speaking furiously when his eye landed on what Misha was drinking.

"What is that?” He asked Misha angrily when he saw Misha was drinking juice from a mug with Jared’s face on it.

"Um… I don’t know the juice shop only had this mug… it’s kind of nice…” Misha told him, absolutely oblivious to Mark’s growing anger.

“I've spent hours to get rid of this bozo or an entire scheme of things I've been setting up for years and it goes up in smoke and you are using his merchandise?” Mark yelled at Misha, once again proving his stupidity in front of his master. He blasted him across the room.

Jensen was standing quietly in far corner of the lair, leaning on the wall, watching the scene unfold in front of him. He couldn’t help but be proud of “Wonder Boy” for standing strong against all the attacks. After all, the monsters were sent by Mark were specifically instructed to destroy him. The boy, despite Jensen building hard and tall walls around his heart had some how managed to brittle brick by brick and had warmly nestled himself in Jensen’s heart.

“Looks like your game's over. Wonder boy is hitting every curve you throw at him.” Jensen told Mark, a hint of pride in his voice.

Marks just seemed to have remembered that Jensen was there too. And as soon as he saw him, an evil plan started forming in his mind.

“Oh, yeah? I wonder if maybe I haven't been throwing the right curves at him.” Mark told Jensen, “Jen, my sweet Jen.” Mark used his powers to drag Jensen closer.

Jensen’s blood went cold, “Don’t even go there!” he said between gritted teeth.

Mark smiled, his hideous teeth visible, which made Jensen’s stomach churn, “See, he's gotta have a weakness because everybody's got a weakness. I mean, what would it be? For Pandora, it was the box thing. For the Trojans, hey, they bet on the wrong horse, okay? We simply need to find out the weakness of Wonder boy.”

Jensen pushed Mark back and said “I've done my part. Get your little minions…” However, he couldn’t complete his sentence as Mark interrupted him.

“They couldn’t even handle him as a baby! I need someone to handle him as a man.” Mark emphasized.

“Hey I sworn off manhandling long ago!” Jensen shouted back angrily, all the sad memories of the past rushing back to his mind.

“ Well, you know, that's good because that's how got yourself into this jam in the first place, isn't it? You sold your soul to me to save your boyfriend's life, and how did that creep thanked you? By running off with some babe. He hurt you real bad, didn't he, Jen?” Mark whispered into Jensen’s ears.

Jensen waved him off, took few steps past him, trying to put as much space between Mark and himself. This talk was making him more than a little uncomfortable. “Look I learned my lesson okay…”

“Which is exactly why I think you’re gonna love my new offer…” Mark cut him off before Jensen had time to protest again. He bend down picked the mug that was fallen from Misha’s hand and gave to Jensen. “ You give me the key to bringing down Wonder boy and I give you the thing that you crave most in the entire cosmos…” He paused and looked Jensen in the eye, “Your Soul.”

Hearing that, the mug that Jensen was holding slips from his hands cluttering on the ground as it breaks.

XXX

Jared was ecstatic, jumping up and down with Chad, retelling the stories of his courage and bravery and summarizes the way he killed all those monsters, for his father. After a day on the road, they had finally reached at Jeff’s temple, and just like last time with the first prayer by Jared, Jeff showed up in his statue, listening lovingly to his son’s stories.

“ You should have been there, Father. I mangled the Minotaur and grappled with the Gorgon just like Phil told me. I analyzed the situation, controlled my strength and kicked. The crowds went wild!” Jared told, boasting about all his moves and talking about his adventures animatedly, excitement clear in his tone and his eyes went dreamy, and he took a bow, pretending the crowd was there, and said, “Thank you. Thank you!”

“You're doing great, son. You're making your old man proud.” Jeff replied, love and awe clear in his voice.

“I'm glad to hear you say that, Father. I've been waiting for this day for a long time.” Jared said happily.

“What day is that son?” Jeff asked, confused.

“The day I rejoin the gods, of course!” Jared said, matter of fact.

Jeff looked sheepish, he rubbed his neck and said: “You've done wonderfully. You really have, my boy! You're just not there yet. You haven't proven yourself a true hero.”

“But, Father, I've beaten every single monster I've come up against. I-I'm-I'm the most famous person in all of Greece. I'm-I-I'm … I have my own action figure!” Jared replied hastily, trying to understand why his Father didn’t approve.

“I'm afraid being famous isn't the same as being a true hero.” Jeff said looking at his son warmly.

“What more can I do?” Jared asked.

“It's something you have to discover for yourself.” Jeff said while adjusting his statute the way it was supposed to be, lifeless.

“But how can I...” Jared was cut off by Jeff saying “Look inside your heart.” And he went stone cold again.

“Father, wait!....NOOOOOOO.” Jared yelled, confused, angered and helpless, punching the tiles on the floor, breaking them into pieces.

Chad approached Jared slowly, knowing his friend was not in the right frame of mind and encircled his wings around him, trying to comfort his friend, “You’ll figure it out man, I know you do.”

XXXXXXX

Jared was felling depressed after his meeting with his father. He didn’t talk much and was constantly thinking of the ways he could prove himself to be a true hero. He still did everything Jim asked him to, but he was losing hope each passing day with no result.

He was currently forced to stand still for this artist who was apparently famous and was drawing his picture on a vase. He was standing in the middle of the hall on the stairs leading to second floor, the hall had tall walls which were decorated with several paintings. Antique vases and statues all around the room. Even the furniture in the room were expensive, this was Jared’s house but it wasn’t his home, Jared didn’t feel like he belonged. While Jared stood there in his misery, Jim was going on and on about the plans they had for the day.

“You got a meeting with King Augeas. He's got a problem with his stables. I'd advise you not to wear your new sandals…” Jim said

“Jim…” Jared spoke up but was cut off by the artist when he tried to look at Jim, “I told you, don't move!” the artist spat at Jared.

“DGR, the Daughters of the Greek Revolution. Want to meet you tomorrow, also you gotta get a girdle from some Amazons…” Jim continued without paying attention to what Jared was trying to say.

Jared tired once more, “Jim… Jim..”

“Then you are going to …” Jim continued not paying attention to Jared.

Jared had had enough, “WHAT’S THE POINT?” he yelled and turned around to look at Jim and in his haste the cloak he was wearing fell down.

“That's it!” the artist threw his paints away in frustration and stormed off.

Jim looked at Jared bewildered, "What do you mean, what's the point? You wanna go to Olympus, don't ya?”

“Yeah, but this stuff doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere.” Jared said , as he gingerly sat down on the stairs.

“You can't give up now. I'm countin' on ya.” Jim said, a soothing presence for Jared as he sat next to him and put a comforting hand on his pupil’s shoulder.

“ I gave everything I had in me for this cause. I don’t know what else to do.” Jared sighed.

“Listen to me, kid. I seen 'em all, and I am tellin' you... and this is the honest-to-Jeff truth, you got somethin' I never seen before.” Jim said kindly to him.

“Really?” Jared asked, hopeful at his master’s encouraging words.

“I can feel it, right down in these stubby bowlegs of mine. There is nothin' you can't do, kid.” Jim smiled warmly at him.

Their little moment was soon crashed when suddenly the door opened and a bunch of screaming fan girls ran towards Jared.

“ It's him!” one of them who was leading the group screamed.

“Hey, watch it! Watch it! Watch... “ Jim tried his best to keep the girls away but he was unsuccessful. All the girls crashed into Jared, which made him loose his balance and he fell down. It gave the crowd a good opportunity to get close to him and touch him to their heart’s content.

“I touched his elbow!” another girl screamed as she narrowed down on Jared..

“Hey, girls! I got his sweatband! “The girls were all over Jared in a pile of heap, touching him and cooing over his body.

“Jim, help!” Jared shouted at Jim from beneath tons of hands and feet that were piled up on top of him.

“Okay. We’re going for escape plan B.” Jim winked at Jared.

“Gotcha.”

Jim went near the door and started shouting, while Jared slowly crawled his way out of the tangle of delicate hands and legs. He carefully managed to escape from the grip of fan girls and hid himself in a free space under the stairs, which was hidden from prying eyes with curtains that decorated the place.

It took some time but the girls noticed Jered’s absence eventually. “Hey! Where is he?” one of the girls asked.

“There he goes! On the veranda!” Jim shouted pointing to somewhere in the yard.

All the girls ran towards the yard, screaming Jared’s name. The trick worked. After the chaos was over, the whole mansion went completely silent. Jared wanted to wait a little more in his hiding spot behind the curtains, just to make sure that everyone had left when he heard footsteps. He groaned thinking someone had found him again when he heard a smooth voice.

“Well, Let's see! What could be behind curtain number one?” A smooth voice drawled out while opening the curtain Jared was hiding behind.

“Jen!” Jared squeaked when he saw Jensen was standing in front of him, looking amused.

“It's all right. The sea of raging hormones has ebbed.” Jensen said smirking.

“Gee, i-i-it's great to see you. I-I-I missed you.” Jared said, clearly surprised to see Jensen here. Standing in front of him in the middle of his house.

“So this is what heroes do on their day off.” Jensen replied, while looking around the mansion. Jared following after him like a duckling following her mother.

“Nah. I'm no hero.” Jared blushed at those words.

“Sure ya are. Everybody in Greece thinks you're the greatest thing since they put the pocket in pita.” Jensen told him.

“I know, it's... it's crazy. You know, I can't go anywhere without being mobbed. I mean …,” Jared rambled on.

“You sound like you could use a break” Jensen cut him off, “ Think your nanny goat would go berserk if you played hooky this afternoon?” Jensen asked Jared when he suddenly turned around and stepped in Jared’s personal space.

Jared blushed again as Jensen stood so close to him, “ Oh, gee, I-I don't know. Uh, Jim’s got the rest of the day pretty much booked.” But Jared couldn’t deny that deep down he was eager to spend some time with the good looking guy standing in front of him on whom he had a crush.

“Awh come on man, you can use this break! Just follow me out the window, round the dumb bells. You lift up the back wall and we're gone.” Jensen joked and then looked into Jared’s eyes hopefully, “So what d’ya say?”

Jared knew there and then that his mind was set as he took in the hopeful glint in Jensen’s green eyes, the same eyes that had mesmerized him from the get go, “Sure, yeah lets get out of here!”

XXXXXXX

They spent all the afternoon in the woods outside of the city. It was quite and serene and it was somewhere where there was no one but them. They laughed and talked and shared embarrassing childhood stories. As they were walking by they entered into a beautiful garden which was situated right in the middle of the woods.

“Huh..” Jensen stopped dead in his tracks.

“What?” Jared asked confused.

“Just.. its been a long time since I came to this place, I almost forgot it existed.” Jensen suddenly looked sad and Jared decided he was ready to kill who ever that made Jensen look sad even for a second.

“What happened?” Jared asked softly.

“Um.. nothing important… life you know You get busy, you forget things you liked before, and blah blah. Now, lets continue shall we.” Jensen responded hastily and started pacing towards the garden.

Jared knew something was wrong but he decided to let it go for now, he didn’t want to ruin their evening after all. They walked around in the garden slowly, moving close to each other, sometimes their hands brushing each other’s skin.. They were content just being with each other and enjoying the beauty of sculptures and flowers decorating the garden. Soon the sun went down completely and the moon rose up while stars stood shining brightly in the night sky.

“Wow. What a day. I didn't know that playing hooky could be so much fun.” Jared said and looked straightly into Jensen’s eyes, making him blush.

“Yeah, neither did I.” Jensen said and looked away, suddenly the kind hazel eyes and affection behind them was too much for him.

As he looked away Jensen spotted two very familiar hideous creatures hiding in the bushes. Misha mouthed to him, “ Stop foolin' around.” And Moosha added, “Yeah. Get the goods, mister.”

“What is it?” Jared said taking in Jensen’s surprised look and glanced at the place Jensen was staring.

“Ah. nothing just some wild animals I think, maybe a bunny.” Jensen replied quickly, trying to take Jared’s attention away from the bushes. He was shocked to see these idiots following him around but the moment he saw Jared following his line of sight he knew he had to desist from them and distract Jared.

“I just wanted to thank you for today, turned out I really needed it. It was like a breath of fresh air.” Jared told him.

He said it with so much sincerity in his voice that Jensen could actually feel his heart breaking once more for this boy and for what he was about to do to him. He couldn’t stop the next sentence coming out of him mouth. “Don't thank me just yet.” he said looking down at the ground.

When they both went silent again walking down in the garden , Jensen decided it was now or never.

“Ah…” Jensen yelped, as he pretended to fall down and injuring his leg.

“Oh gods Jen, be careful, are you okay?” Jared bent down at Jensen’s level with a concerned look on his face.

“Yeah…okay, just weak ankle.” Jensen said trying to sound non chalant .

“Let me…” and before Jensen had any chance to accept or protest, Jared picked him up in one swift move and carried him over to the nearest bench.

If Jensen was being honest with himself he missed this, being manhandled by Jared. Ever since the incident by the river, he constantly thought about strong hands picking him up like he weighed nothing and how he felt safe in those arms. It was a feeling he very much resented himself for, thinking he was a fool for going down the same path he went before, which he knew would only end up in heart break and pain. But when Jared put him on the bench again, letting go of him, Jensen couldn’t help his heart feel the disappointment.

He was lost in his own thoughts when another twitch in the bushes brought him back to real world, to the task in hand. “So, uh, do you have any problems with things like this? Um... Weak ankles, I mean.”

“Oh, uh, no, not really.” Jared answered.

“ No weaknesses whatsoever? No trick knee? …” Jensen started scooting closer down the bench so he was close to where Jared was sitting. “Ruptured disks? Sinus problem?”

“No. I'm... I'm, I'm afraid I'm, uh, fit as a fiddle.” Jared stood up while answering him, worrying if he stayed closer to Jensen for one more minute, he might just lose control and do something stupid.

“Wonder boy, you are perfect.” Jensen said mockingly when he saw Jared moving towards the fountain near by. Jared though was so deep in thoughts that missed the sarcastic tone in Jensen’s voice and he replied to his comment with a quiet “Thanks.”

When he got near the fountain, he bent down to pick up a rock and threw it in the fountain with all his strength, which made the sculpture in the fountain break in half.

“Whoops!” Jared said sheepishly, rubbing at his neck as he saw the sculpture break into pieces.

Jensen couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him at Jared’s gesture of a small kid coming from a 20 year old man. He slowly stood up and went near Jared, “It looks better that way.” He said.

“Yeah right!”

“No, it really does.” Jensen tried comforting the man once more, not wanting to see him sad. Well, not now anyway! Jared looked deep in thoughts and Jensen seriously felt the urge to punch anyone who made the boy standing next to him sad, which was ironic cause he was sure that what he was about to do to him will be the worse than any others in the past. Yet, he couldn’t help himself but think of putting the smile back on Jared’s face.

“You know, when, when I was a kid. I, I would have given anything to be exactly like everybody else.” Jared finally said quietly.

Jensen snorted at that, “So, you wanted to be petty and dishonest?” he couldn’t help the venom in his tone.

“Not everyone is like that!” Jared exclaimed, taken aback by the harsh words.

“Yes, they are.” Jensen said, looking away, cause he was sure one more minute looking into those hazel eyes and he would be in tears.

“You're not like that.” Jared said softly.

“How do you know what I'm like?” Jensen said, hating himself even more for he was going to hurt such a pure and innocent boy.

Jared put a hand on his shoulders and turned him around in a way that he had no other choice but to look at Jared’s face and said, “All I know is you're the most amazing person with weak ankles I've ever met.” He said with so much love in his eyes and conviction in his voice that it made Jensen absolutely speechless. Jared then bent down and picked a rose for Jensen from the small bushes that decorated the garden.

“ Oh!” that was all Jensen could say when Jared gave him the flower.

“ Jen, when I'm with you, I-I don't feel so alone.” Jared continued while he slowly caressed Jensen’s cheek.

“ Sometimes it's better to be alone.” Jensen whispered still looking down at the rose in his hands.

“What do you mean?” Jared asked.

“That way nobody can hurt you.” Jensen wasn’t sure why he said this stuff. He wasn’t sure if it was just the pent up anger in his heart that was breaking itself free or it was just because he wanted to protect Jared, from himself!

Jared held Jensen’s chin in his hand and forced Jensen to look at him as he peered down in those hypnotizing wide green eyes, “Jen, I would never, ever hurt you.” He said that with such a firm yet soft tone that Jensen could feel like it was promise of a life time and that was just it. He couldn’t do this to Jared, he couldn’t be like his douchebag ex.

“And I don't wanna hurt you, Jared so…” he could feel Jared slowly lessening the space between them, “Um, let's both do ourselves a favor and...” It was becoming harder and harder to concentrate and speak with those beautiful eyes looking down at him and those perfect pink lips so close to his face, “…stop this before we...”

The moment was broken however, when a sudden light and Jim’s loud voice filled the silent garden, “All right! Break it up! Break it up! Party's over!”

******

Jim was furious when he came back to mansion earlier that day and couldn’t find Jared. He and Chad had been looking all over the town for Jared, the rest of the day. At the end he was sick with worry, thinking Jared must have gotten himself in trouble. He and Chad were flying around outside of city when Jim suddenly saw two of them from up in sky.

When he saw Jared safe, just casually hanging out with Jensen, all of the worry left his body and all that left was plain anger.

"I’ve been looking all over this god_freaking_damn town for you mister…” Jim couldn’t help but yell at this boy.

"Hey hey, Calm down mutton man! This was all my fault, I persuade him to do this!” Jensen cut off Jim mid sentence!

"Oh you’re already on my list young man,, so don’t make it worse!” Jim warned him. He then looked at Jared and said, “And as for you, ya bum, you're gonna go to the stadium and you're gonna be put through the workout of your life! Now get on the horse.” Jim said furious.

Jared who seemed stunned by Jensen’s attempt at defending him, spoke up to Jim “Okay, okay.” all the while looking at Jensen .

Jensen, who was looking down all the time while Jim was scolding Jared finally looked up and whispered, “I'm sorry.” The words however were meant only for Jared’s ears.

Jared leaned down and whispered back “Ah, he'll get over it.” He then bent down and picked a white rose and gave it to Jensen which made him blush. Hesitant fora moment, Jared leaned down and kissed his cheek, making Jensen blush even harder which made him give Jared a shy smile.

Jim, who was looking at the exchange between them finally had enough of this, he rolled his eyes and started pulling Jared away from Jensen. “ Okay now! Move! Move, move, move, move, move! Move!” he told Jared, whose eyes were all on Jensen while Jim and Chad manhandled him to sit on the saddle.

Chad who was oddly silent in the whole scene finally spoke up, “So not cool man!” and took off the ground angrily in one swift move which made Jim stumble on his back, loose his balance and fell down few feet away in the bushes. He hit is head one tree branch and went unconscious! Both Jared and Chad were far too stuck in their own head to actually understand what had happened. Jared busy with the thought soft green eyes and Chad furious at the thought that he might have had once again lost his friend!

XXXXXXXXXX

Jensen couldn’t help the smile on his face or the blush for that matter. He slowly ran his fingers on his cheeks, tracing where Jared’s lips were few minutes ago, remembering the warmth and sweetness of that simple gesture, how safe he felt with him, how cherished and how loved… “wow where did that came from,” Jensen thought!

"You think a man would learn,” Jensen sighed, in the quiet night. A tune started humming in his head and the words flew out without any pause. He heard a echo singing with him but dismissed the thought immediately.

“Okay so we know, Jensen wasn’t singing alone right?” Billy asked Rob.

“Oh no, of course he wasn’t. After all, we are the Proclaimer of heroes, how are we supposed to proclaim if we are not IN the story.” Rob winked at Billy.

“We really are the coolest of the Gods,” Borja said happily.

“Anyway, lets do our part now shall we? I think our little Jensen needs a little push to understand his feelings.” When all the swainers agreed Rob smiled and said “Hit it boys.”

"If there's a prize for rotten judgment

I guess I've already won that

No man is worth the aggravation

That's ancient history ... Been there, done that…” Jensen slowly started singing.

Few voices sang back with him, but Jensen was so busy with his thoughts that he thought he was imagining things.

"Who do ya think you're kidding He's the earth and heaven to ya

Try to keep it hidden Honey, we can see right through ya”

"Oh, no” Jensen tried denying it, he threw the rose away, but the voices around him kept singing what his heart desired the most.. He tried walking away but nothing worked. It was like an invisible band was playing along with him.

"Man, you can't conceal it

We know how you feel and who you're thinkin' of…” the voices sang.

"Oh, no chance, no way I won't say it, no, no!” Jensen replied.

"You swoon, you sigh Why deny it, uh-oh” The voices asked him

So, Jensen sang back

"It's too cliche I won't say I'm in love

I thought my heart had learned its lesson…”

"It feels so good when you start out”

" Ah - My head is screaming, get a grip, man…”

The invisible band refused to let go and continued,

"Unless you're dyin' to cry your heart out, oh

You keep on denyin' who you are and how you're feelin'

Baby, we're not buyin' Hon, we saw you hit the ceilin'

Face it like a grownup When you gonna own up that you

Got, Got, Got it bad…”

"Oh, no chance, no way I won't say it, no, no….”

"Give up, but give in - Check the grin, you're in love”

" This scene won't play I won't say I'm in love”

"You're doin'flips, read our lips You're in love…”

"You're way off base, I won't say it

Get off my case I won't say it…”

"Man, don't be proud It's okay, you're in love!”

“ At least out loud, I won't say I'm in Love!” That’s when Jensen looked at the bench he was sitting on right now and noticed the rose that Jared had given him somehow had magically made is way next to him. Jensen picked it up and smelled it. He thought the rose smelled like Jared, he smiled, a warm feeling pushing its way through his heart and making heat pool in his belly at the thought of the young man, with beautiful eyes and dimpled smile, hair all floppy and the strongest of all the men around Greece. He was so screwed.

"We are done here fellas, ” Rob said to swainers, they smiled at each other and went to see the rest of the story, observing Jensen sitting on the bench with the rose in his hands, a small smile on his face that of a love sick fool.

“That’s the magic of love, kids...that’s the magic of love!” Rob explained his spectators who seemed interested to know what would happen next.

XXXXXXXX

Jensen was deep in his own thoughts and he missed the smell of sulfur that indicated Pellegrino is around.. And it was too late to run away when he realised it and found Mark right in his face,, not that he could go anywhere to get rid of the guy anyway!

"Hey, what's the buzz, huh, Jen? What is the weak link in Wonder boy’s chain?” Mark sneered in his face.

"Get yourself another guy. I'm through.” Jensen shot at him and started walking away. That’s when an invisible force pulled him back.

"I'm sorry. You mind runnin' that by me again? I must have had a chunk of brimstone wedged in my ear or something.” Mark said, pretending not to have heard what Jensen said.

" Then read my lips! Forget it.” Jensen said fiercely.

" Jen, Jen, Jen, my sweet, deluded little minion. Aren't we forgetting one teensy-weensy, but ever so crucial little, oh so tiny detail? I OWN YOU!” Mark shot back at him. “If I say, Sing, you sing, Hey, name that tune. If I say, I want Wonder boy’s head on a platter, “you say... “

" Medium or well done?” Jensen finished his sentence. “but that was before…”

Mark pretended he didn’t hear him again, “Oh I'm sorry. You hear that sound? That's the sound of your freedom fluttering out the window forever.” Mark told Jensen.

"I don't care. I'm not gonna help you hurt him.” Jensen told him, his tone carrying a certain finality.

" I can't believe you're getting so worked up about some guy.” Mark smirked.

" This one is different. He's honest and, and he's sweet…” Jensen said dreamily and totally oblivious to Mark’s amusement, “He would never do anything to hurt me. Besides, O Almighty, you can't beat him. He has no weaknesses. He's gonna...”

"I think he does, Jen! I truly think he does.” Mark cut him off. And when Jensen turned around and saw the smirk on Mark’s face he knew both him and Jared were in trouble.

XXXXXXX

Jim slowly came to consciousness. . He still felt dizzy, and with a little difficulty he stood up. He touched his head and winced from the pain, “ Oh, oh, I got another horn here. That kid's gonna be doin' laps for a month.” He muttered to himself when he felt a small bump on his head from where he had hit the rock.

That was when he heard some voices coming from behind the trees, “I own you..” Jim walked closer and saw Jensen was there talking to another hideous guy, “If I say, Sing, you sing, Hey, name that tune. If I say, I want Wonder boy’s head on a platter, you say...”

" Medium or well done?”

Jim couldn’t believe what he was hearing, Oh! I knew that dame was trouble. This is gonna break the kid's heart. He thought . He started running to stadium as fast as he could. Whoever that other guy was, he was trouble.

XXXXXXXXXX

When Jim got to the stadium he saw Jared was doing pull ups using a barfix. Chad who was currently laying on the ground was looking at him amusingly . Jim hated to be bearer of the bad news but he kind of felt as if Jared was his own son. And he hated to see him hurt but truth was to be told.. With a sigh, he walked in the middle of stadium from where Jared could see him.

"Hey, Jim, what happened to you?” Jared asked him cheerful.

"Kid, we gotta talk.” Jim said but it seemed like Jared didn’t hear a word he said.

"Oh, Jim, I just had the greatest day of my life. I, I, I can't stop thinkin' about Jen. He's somethin' else.” He said, a dreamy look on his face.

" Kid! I'm tryin' to talk to you! Will you come down here and listen?” Jim tried once again.

"Aw, how can I come down there when I'm feelin' so up and high and elated?” Jared said as he held on the bars with his muscled hands and pulled his body straight, upside down. Even if he was big and bulky, he was quite agile. He was doing a handstand push up..

"Ah, very nice. What I'm tryin' to say is...” Jim tried to continue but he was once again cut off by Jared, “That if it wasn't for you, I never would have met him. Oh, I owe you big time, little guy. I do.”

"Will you just knock it off for a couple of seconds?” Jim was getting frustrated.

"Come on, Jim Keep up…” Jared said and finally landed on the ground, he posed like he was like one of the boxers, pulling up his hands and showing off his muscles and started throwing playful punches towards Jim, “Ok, old man I got one word for ya: duck!”

"Listen to me. He’s…”

"My dream come true?” Jared asked hopeful.

" Not exactly.” Jim said while rolling his eyes.

"More beautiful than Aphrodite? “

"Aside from that!” Jim had to admit the guy was beautiful.

"The most wonderful...” finally Jim yelled as he couldn’t hold back anymore. This time he took both of Jared’s hands in his own and yelled, “HE’S A FRAUD!” Jared looked taken back by that but he was finally silent and he was standing still so Jim continued, “He’s been playin' ya you idiot of a sap!”

Jared was shocked at first but then seemed like he found his voice again but what he said wasn’t what Jim wanted to hear, “ Aw, come on. Stop kiddin' around.”

"I'm not kiddin' around.” Jim said softly, feeling sorry for the boy in front of him. He tried telling the whole story but once again Jared jumped in the middle of his sentence, “Look Jim, I know you're upset about today, but that's no reason to...”

Jim was getting angry now, how could Jared not understand he thought, “Kid, you're missin' the point.”

"The point is, I love him.” Jared said firmly.

"He doesn't love you. “Jim shot back.

"You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jared turned away from him.

“He is nothin' but a two-timin'... “ Jim tried to make his point home.

" Stop it!”

“…No-good, lyin', schemin'... “

"I said Shut up!” Jared yelled at him and with a swift move punched Jim in the face, causing him to stumble few feet back and land in the dumbbells, making all three of them gasp in shock.

"Jim. I... Oh, I'm, I'm sorry.” Jared rushed towards Jim, already ashamed of what he’d done. But Jim pushed his hand away and said “ Okay, okay, that's it. You won't face the truth? Fine. But I cant stay and see you fail kid.” With that he started walking towards the door.

"Jim, wait. Where ya goin'?” Jared asked him.

"I'm hoppin' the first barge outta here. I'm goin' home.” Jim said.

Jared felt a new wave of anger building inside him because of Jim, for simply leaving him like that, all of the rational parts of his brain seemed to have gone off, “ Fine! G...Go! I don't... I don't need you.”

Chad, who stood stunned at the scene in front of him finally said, “Oh come on guys, you cant just drift apart over some babe you met Jay bird, what about going to the mount?”

"He…he is the one being a big baby over me not following his stupid schedule, plus Chad, Jen isn’t Just some babe okay, I love him… the sooner you guys accept that the better.” Jared told Chad.

Jim heard their exchange from where he was standing near the door and when he heard what Jared said he thought fine he wants to be a baby, let him be! He will learn it the hard way then. He finally looked back and said “I thought you were gonna be the all-time champ kid…. not the all-time chump.!” And with that he left the stadium.

XXXXXX

Jared was furious over what happened between him and Jim but as soon as he saw the older man leaving the stadium he regretted how he handled the situation, what if Jim was right? Nah, Jensen would never do that. But he couldn’t help it part of his brain was now doubting everything.

"Damn Jay bird, what’s gotten into you? Is that guy really that important to just let Jim go like that, the man made who you are right now ? Boy, even if he is wrong … we owe him more than that!” Chad said.

When Jared didn’t answer him, he sighed and said, “I’ll go and try to bring him back, you better get yourself together when we are back.” With that Chad left the stadium too.

Chad was right! Jared thought, at least what he could’ve done was to talk to Jim, see why he thought Jensen was that bad. But his thoughts were interrupted when he heard an unfamiliar voice from behind him.

"Jeez, what got his goat, huh?” When Jared looked back he saw a man with black clothes and robe standing there. The man got closer and offered his hand, “Name is Mark, Lord of the Dead. Hi. How ya doin'? “ He said but Jared wasn’t in any mood to shake hands right now.

"Uh, not now, okay?” Jared said and started walking away from him when the guy stepped in front if him, “Hey, hey. I only need a few seconds, and I'm a fast talker, all right? See, I've got this major deal in the works. A real estate venture, if you will. And, Jare, you little devil, you. May I call you Jare? You seem to be constantly getting in the way of it, huh?” The guy, Mark told him, but Jared was totally oblivious as to what he was talking about.

"You've got the wrong guy.” Jared tried to walk away once more when Mark grabbed his biceps, “Hear me out, ya little.. Just hear me out, okay?” Mark asked, trying to play it sweet.

"So as I was saying, I would be eternally grateful if you would just take a day off from this hero business of yours. I mean, monsters, natural disasters, You just wait a day, tale a break, huh?” Mark asked him.

“You're out of your mind.” Jared told him, and this time he started walking out of stadium.

"Not so fast, because, ya see, I do have a little leverage you might wanna know about.” Mark smirked and snapped his fingers.

When Jared turned around he saw Jensen was standing next to the guy , in chains, ”JEN?” Jared yelled.

“Don't listen to him, Jay…” Jensen tried but with another snap of Mark his mouth was bound too and when Jared rushed to save him, he was met with just a dark cloud where Jensen was few seconds ago. It was like he vanished within seconds.

"Let him go!” Jared seethed.

“Here's the trade-off…” Mark put his hands around Jared’s shoulder and started walking with him, “ You give up your strength for few hours, okay? Say, the next twenty four hours and Jen here is free as a bird and safe from harm. You dance, you kiss, you schmooze, carry on, and go home happy. What do ya say? Huh” Mark asked him.

“People are... are gonna get hurt, aren't they?” Jared asked Mark, bewildered at the sight of this man. If he could vanish Jen like that, he definitely was a evil personified.

"Nah! I mean, it's, you know, it's a possibility. It happens 'cause, you know, it's war, but what can I tell ya? Anyway, what do you owe these people, huh?” With another snap of his fingers Jensen appeared again and Mark held his face in his hand, “Besides, Isn't Jen... you little smoochy face Jen... more important than they are?”

"Stop it!” Jared could see Jensen’s face was disgusted by being touched by Mark. But the guy didn’t seem to care about that nor what Jared told him to do.

"Isn't he?” Mark punctuated his words this time.

After few seconds Jared said, “You've gotta swear he'll be safe from any harm.”

"Fine, okay. I'll give you that one. Jen is safe, otherwise you get your strength right back. Yadda, yadda. Fine print. Boilerplate. Okay? We're done?” Mark asked Jared and when he nodded his head Mark asked him, “What do you say we shake on it?”

Jared hesitated a little bit which made Mark frustrated so he tried once more, “Hey, look I really don't have, like, time to bat this around. I'm kind of on a schedule here. I need an answer, like, now. Going once, going twice...”

"All right!” Jared yelled and shook his hand. As soon as he did he felt all of his strength leaving his body. He couldn’t even stand up anymore, his legs were so shaky and wobbly to do anything, and when Mark released his hand he fell on his knees on the ground.

"Yes! We're there! Bam!” Mark cheered. He held Jared’s hair and made him look up to his face, “You may feel just a little queasy. It's kind of natural. Maybe you should sit down.” With that he pushed Jared further making him sprawl on the ground. “Now you know how it feels to be just like everybody else. Isn't it just peachy?” He continued.

Mark then started walking towards where Jensen was sitting on the ground in bounds and said: “Oh! You'll love this. One more thing…” Mark then looked at Jensen and said “Jen, babe, a deal's a deal. You're off the hook.” He snapped his hands and Jensen was free from the bounds, but when he tried to get to Jared Mark held him once more and continued, “By the way Jare, is he not, like, a fabulous little actor?”

" Stop it.” Jensen said weakly already hating himself for doing this to Jared.

" What do you mean?” Jared asked. Already knowing he wouldn’t love the answer.

"I mean, your little chickie-poo here, was working for me all the time. Duh.” Mark said, matter of factly.

Jared looked at him shocked , he looked at Jensen then and saw he was looking on the ground, tears streaming down his beautiful face, “You're... You're lying!” he said, not wanting to believe what he was seeing.

Suddenly two figures appeared next to him, the two kids from the cave! “Help! Jeepers, mister, you're really strong.” The kids then turned into two ugly creatures , making Jared believe it was all a lie.

"Couldn't have done it without you, sugar, sweetheart, babe.” Mark told Jensen but he was looking at Jared from aside, already loving his misery.

Jensen finally pushed Mark’s hands away and lunged next to Jared on the ground, “No! It's... It's not like that. I didn't mean to... I-I couldn't... I...” When he saw Jared was not looking at him, his heart broke for one more time but this time he had no one to blame but himself. he slowly whispered “I'm so sorry.” Knowing it wont change a damn thing.

Misha and Moosha started dancing around Jared, throwing garbage at him and singing “Our hero's a zero! Our hero's a zero!”

Jensen wanted to kill them then, he couldn’t hold the sobs that scaped him when he saw Jared just sitting there and taking it, just slowly crying over his broken heart. Jensen wanted to kill himself to for being the cause of that pain.

Mark was loving all the drama that was happening in front if him. If he had time he would’ve sat down and just enjoyed their sorrow but for now he had to get back to his plan, “Well, gotta blaze. There's a whole cosmos up there waiting for me with, hey, my name on it. So much for the preliminaries, and now on to the main event!” with that he and his minions left a broken Jared and Jensen behind.

XXXXXXXX

It was time. The planets had all aligned in the same line. It was finally the time to release the titans. After leaving the stadium, Mark and his minions, Misha and Moosha flew towards where the titans were locked. In deepest part of the ocean, in a cage locked by Zeus himself. But now it was the time, the planets gravity made the locks weak and easy to unlock it. Even Mark could’ve opened the cage now. When he and his minions reached the cage, Mark yelled at the titans, “Brothers! Titans! Look at you in your squalid prison! Who put you down there?”

"Zeus!” the Titans replied.

" And now that I set you free what is the first thing you are going to do?” Mark asked them all, while he forced the lock open with his powers.

" Destroy him!” the Titans said, and broke the door open with a punch.

"Good answer.” Mark smirked as his army of Titans marched off to another war.

************

Jeff startled awake when the door to his bedroom was banged open. “What the…” he started but was cut off when a very distressed Rich walked in their room yelling, “THE TITANS ARE FREE.”

Jeff went rigid in the bed, knowing right then that this time the fight wasn’t going to be as easy as last.

******

“Crush Jeff”

“Freeze him”

“Melt Jeff”

“Blow him away”

The four titans said as they destroyed the miles of plains on their way to mount Olympus. Each of them were the rulers of Earth controlling different elements before Jeff bound them in a dungeon in the deepest part of the ocean. Now, they were all free roaming on Earth again, thanks to Mark. Among them were The Mountain King -A two-headed Titan made completely out of rock-, The Lurker -a skeletal Titan made completely out of ice, The Lord of Flame -A blob-like Titan made completely out of lava- and then there was The Mystic Voice -A tornado-like Titan with arms like a tornado, red eyes, and a red mouth. They were all terrifying and their was a reason why Jeff had sent packed them up and threw them in a cage to be banished in the deepest ridges of the ocean. But it seemed like during his time cleansing the Earth, Jeff had also thrown someone else also into the pit. The Cyclops.

All five of them were walking towards mount Olympus when Mark called the Cyclops, “I have a special job for you, my optic friend.” He said, smirking.

XXXXXXX

Jared could here the screams and sounds of city crashing to its ground but he felt numb, and it wasn’t just because Mark sucked all of his powers out of him. He couldn’t believe that Jensen, his first love, had lied to him. . Suddenly nothing more mattered. Not the city, not the people and not even going into the Mount Olympus .

He was distracted from all of his thoughts when a loud voice called his name “JARED, COME ON OUT, PRETTY BOY”

When Jared looked out of the stadium he saw a giant Cyclops standing in the middle of the city smashing building to the ground while calling his name. That was it he thought, he couldn’t let other people get hurt because of his stupidity, he had to save them. Plus what was the worst thing that could happen if he faced the giant creature? In that moment, even death didn’t seem that bad.

Jared tried so hard to stand on his legs. He struggled but when he finally stood up, he felt his knees buckling under him. That’s when he felt a hand holding his arm and to provide him some support and helped him stand straight and that was when Jared remembered Jensen was still there.

He pushed Jensen’s hand away. He could hardly do that though, or at least he wanted to do that, but with whatever was left of his strength, it looked like a weak shove.

“Jared…” Jensen said quietly but one look from Jared made him completely silent.

He started walking towards the door, Jensen hesitated for a bit not sure what to do but when he saw the look on Jared’s face he knew he needed do something.

“Jared where are you going?” Jensen asked him, but when Jared didn’t answer him and just kept on walking. He rushed toward him, stepping in front of Jared and said, “What are you doing? You cant go there, without your strength you’ll be killed.”

“There are worse things that are happening” Jared told him with a blank look on his face which made Jensen’s blood run cold. He didn’t care . It suddenly dawned on Jensen that Jared didn’t care if he died! Jensen was crushed to see his Jared. who was so lively, vibrant and full of life was reduced to this and it was all because of him. Jensen knew no one could hate him in that moment more than he, himself would. When Jared walked past him towards the middle of the town, Jensen knew it was up to him to do something. He started running.

XXXXXXX

When Jared reached in the middle of the town he could hear some people whispering from their hiding spots “Jared is here! Thank gods we are safe.” Hearing that he became even more sad because he was going to let everybody down. Well, that’s apparently what he did, wasn’t it? It was his thing! First he let down his adoptive parents all those years by not handling his strength well, then he let down Jim and Chad by falling in love with apparently what was all a lie and now he was going to let down the people who counted on him for saving their lives and the worst of all, he was going to let his father down by never becoming a true hero.

He was standing in the middle of the square on wobbly legs, just some feet apart from where the Cyclops was standing. He gathered all his energy and yelled, “HEY ASSHOLE! YOU LOOKING FOR ME!” Jared thought if the Cyclops focused on him while the gods fought whatever the hell was going on and could bring back things to normal, then less people could get hurt.

When the Cyclops heard Jared’s voice he turned towards him. Jared stood there looking up at the giant ghoul. His mind was all fuzzy with everything that was going on which made him miss the first blow that came, making him fly few feet away, and hitting the wall pretty hard. He saw the Cyclops getting closer to him. He was slowly loosing conscious and while he watched people running all around him screaming, all he wished was that his father could make things back under control sooner.

XXXXXXXX

“We’re in trouble, oh big trouble, THOSE MINDLESS CREATURES ARE OUT GATES” Rich yelled, while he and the other gods and goddesses tried to fight the Titans . But this time it seemed like none of the tricks they used last time would work.

One by one they got stuck either into melted lava or got frozen by the lurker. They were practically outnumbered . Soon the only ones left were Rich and Jeff.

“GIVE ME MORE THUNDERBOLTS” Jeff yelled towards Rich, trying to fight the mountain king! They both were so busy fighting that missed Misha and Moosha sneaking behind Rich.

“Hephaestus has been captured, my lord. Everyone's been captured…” he was cut off by Misha and Moosha smacking him in the head and made him unconscious.

“Hey Jeff, I’m home!” Mark said standing in his huge flying chariot.

“MARK! YOU’RE BEHIND THIS???” Jeff asked furious, the Lord of flame and the Lurker where freezing and poring lava on him from both sides. And without his thunderbolts he was out powered too and soon captured by those guys.

“You're correct, sir! And its time we make some changes around here.” Mark said with an evil glint in his eyes and with a snap of his fingers he turned the royal chair and halls to an all black castle with skulls all over it.

“I guess I can get used to this” Mark said happily.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jensen was running with all the strength he had in his body. He didn’t know where Jim had gone but he hoped to find him at the pier. If he had left Jared, he was probably going home right? When he got near the shore he could see Chad talking heatedly with Jim, he thanked his heavens for reaching there in time. .

“JIM, CHAD!” Jensen yelled their names. When both of them looked turned around Jim looked at him disgustingly and started walking towards the shore.

Jensen started running again, leaving Chad’s snarky comment “what do YOU want here?” he walked past Jim and stood in front of him, out of breath as he spoke, “Jared needs your help.”

Jim snorted and said “What does he need me for when he's got friends like you?”

Jensen knew he deserved the venomous words but he didn’t have time for explaining his actions. Jared’s life was in danger. “He wont listen to me!” Jensen pleaded them.

“Good! He's finally learned somethin'.” Jim said and started walking again.

“Look, I know what I did was wrong, but this isn't about me. It's about him.” Jensen said and caught Jim’s hand in his own pulling him back and forcing Jim to look at him again , “If you don't help him now, Jim , he’ll die” Jensen yelled in his face.

Jim heard Chad’s loud “WHAT” but all he could think of was that he couldn’t lose another kid.

XXXXXXXXXX

When Chad heard what was happening from a frantically speaking Jensen, he didn‘t let any of them think, he pushed a transfixed Jim and a scared but determined Jensen on his back and flew as fast as he could to get to Jared.

When they arrived near the town’s central square, they saw the damn Cyclops was playing with Jared like he was a doll, throwing him up and down and left to right. Chad went rigid in the air for a moment as he saw what was happening to his childhood friend but soon regained his composure and flew straight towards Jared, grabbing him mid air with his teeth from the Cyclops as he flew towards a half broken building and then landed, hiding behind the walls that were still standing.

Jim and Jensen hopped off of him and rushed toward Jared, but Jensen suddenly remembered he probably wasn’t still welcome and held himself back last minute before crashing into Jared.

“Jim…Chad?” Jared said when he opened his eyes weakly and saw Jim and Chad hovering above him , “You guys came back!” They gathered that the way he said it, it was like Jared couldn’t believe what he was seeing with his eyes.

"Come on, kid. Come on. Yeah we are here, but it’s time you fight back kiddo. Come on. You can take this bum. He is just a brainless giant! You can take him even in your sleep!” Jim tried comforting Jared while attending to the bruises and injuries he had received from being tossed up like a ball, thrown back and forth as if he was nothing, by Cyclopes. .

Jared though seemed like he didn’t listen to Jim, his eyes searched where Jensen was standing and then said, “You were right all along, Jim. Dreams ARE for rookies.” He said with disgust. Jensen felt another silent tear escaped his eyes. He knew he deserved all this and even more. But he wished so hard to go back in time and reverse all his actions so that he would never hurt Jared. Hell he wished Mark really did kill him and collect his soul back in the day when Chris left him, that way they never would have been in this situation.

“No, no, no, kid.” Jim’s heart broke to see his once “all sunshine and rainbows” boy be this broken. He needed to fix this, he was as much to blame in this whole mess. He regretted walking away. If only he had controlled his temper better, but there was no time for ifs and but’s now as he needed to put Jared back together. He once again continued “Givin' up is for rookies. I came back cause I'm not quittin' on ya. I'm willin' to go the Mount . How about you?” Jim smiled warmly at Jared.

Just when Jared wanted to answer Jim, the Cyclops found their hiding spot and reached for Jared and grabbed him in his fist. “Me bite off your head!” the Cyclops told Jared and brought him near his face. Jared glanced at Jim and Chad who were watching him from the ground, cheering on him and he decided he wouldn’t give up easily. In one swift move he punched the Cyclops in the eye. The giant creature yelled in pain and let go of Jared, making him fall down on a cart near by. Jared felt dizzy but there was no time to dwell on it, he looked around and spotted a rope in the cart. He immediately grabbed the rope as he was hit by an instant idea and while Cyclops was still walking around in pain, Jared observed that the monster was walking backwards near the edge of a very deep valley. In one quick move, Jared tied the rope around his big feet and tugged at it. The monster felt on the ground with a loud thud causing the cliff under him to slide and both him and the ground falling down the valley with a loud crash.

Jared, who was standing few feet back from where the monster had been standing a few minutes back, slowly walked closer to the cliff of the valley to make sure the creature was gone. “Ha Ha” Jared smiled when he saw no signs of the Cyclops, he murmured “I did it” and it suddenly dawned on him what happened, he had defeated a monster without his strength. “YAY I DID IT” this time he yelled looking at the valley, his voice echoing back to him. Jared was so happy with his victory that he didn’t hear the rumble in the ground. After the landslide, a huge crack had formed in the ground, and it was slowly progressing towards where the broken building once stood.. When the crack reached one of the pillars, it caused the giant pole to stumble.

Jensen saw the huge pole was beginning to fall and he wanted to yell Jared’s name but he saw Jared was busing doing a victory dance, and Jensen’s voice wouldn’t reach him in time. So he did the next best thing he could, he ran towards Jared and just before the pole fell off completely he pushed Jared aside “Jared! Look out!”

Jared didn’t understand what hit him, he was pushed aside with so much force and all he heard was Jensen telling him to look out! The force with which he was pushed made his head spin and when his head finally stopped spinning, he looked back and saw the pole which was standing there few seconds ago was down on the ground, with Jensen underneath it!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“JEN! NOOOO!” Jared shouted and rushed towards Jensen. The man’s eyes were closed, which made Jared’s heart grip with fear.

He could hear Chad and Jim rushing towards them but all he could think of was Jensen lying under the huge pole, unconscious. He saved my life, Jared thought. “NO ,NO! I CANT LOSE YOU” Jared said, once again feeling helpless without his strength. “JIM, CHAD! Help me, we need to move this pole! “ he told them without looking at their faces, already trying to lift the giant pillar himself. That’s when he felt it, it felt like there was a glow all around him and next thing he know, the pillar was over his head like it weighed nothing.

“What's happening?” Jared asked Jim and Chad, confused. He didn’t know what was happening. His strength was gone so he shouldn’t have been able to lift up the pillar on his own. He felt just like he did before Mark made a deal with him.

“M… Mark’s deal is broken. He… he promised I wouldn't get hurt.” Jensen informed them, weakly looking up at him with a small smile on his face.

Jared threw the pillar down in the valley and knelt down beside Jensen, gingerly lifting his head on his lap, “Jen, why... why... why did ya... You didn't have to...”

Jared was cut off when Jensen spoke, “Oh well, people always do crazy things...” Jensen sighed, it was becoming harder for him to breath every second. But he held on and looked at Jared and said, “when they're in love.” He smiled weakly.

Jared could feel tears running down his cheeks. He understood then that Jensen wasn’t lying, he truly loved him, he knew what they felt in that garden was true. Jensen’s eyes was telling the truth. What ever it was that made him work with Mark, which he had to find out and made a mental note to do so, wasn’t Jensen’s choice. But his blood went cold when a small voice in his head reminded him if he gets time… there was a big chance both of them wont make it to the end of the night. Jared couldn’t help it any more he slowly traced Jensen’s face with his fingers, “Oh, Jen. Jen, I... I...”

Jensen slowly put his hand on his lips, “Are you always this articulate, Wonder boy?” Jensen joked weakly, “You... You haven't got much time. You still need to stop Mark. Your father needs you.”

Jared wanted to protest but he was stopped by Jim’s voice, “I'll watch over him, kid.” When Jared looked at him and Chad, he could see their eyes were wet to , but they were right, Jared had a mission to focus on.

“Go, I…I promise Jim and I wont kill each other,” Jensen told him weakly.

“Not funny” Jared said, he felt this could very well become true, well not Jim killing Jensen but there was a chance he never saw Jensen again, there was a big chance he would be gone! He teared up again at that thought but it suddenly hit him, if he defeats Mark he can make him heal Jensen. He had to win this fight for Jensen. He took a deep breath and when he opened his eyes with a resolve, every one saw a look of the warrior in him. He slowly hugged Jensen tighter and looked him in the eye, leaned down and kissed Jensen on the lips. He didn’t care, if this would be the last time he meets Jensen then he had to do this and if things went wrong, they could all end up dead anyway..

Jensen was shocked at first when Jared’s lips met his. But he didn’t hesitate , he kissed him back with all the power that was left in him. He had wanted this for so long. They kissed untill they were both gasping for air. When they pulled apart, Jared put his forehead on Jensen’s and whispered, “You’re gonna be all right. I promise.” Jensen just smiled at him, already feeling tired.

Jared then put Jensen’s head gingerly on the flat stone Jim provided. With one final kiss he stood up and hopped behind Chad, “Let’s go Chad”

With that Jared and Chad flew up in the sky, heading to Mount Olympus with a resolve to save the world from the clutches of evil Mark.

********

Mark was happily seated on the throne, watching Lord of Flame and the Lurker, freezing and pouring lava on Jeff from both sides. The melted lava was getting cold around him, making a cage around him , made of stones. The stones formed up untill his neck, now only his head out of the cage. .

" I swear to you, Mark, when I get out of th...” Jeff tried but his sentence was cut by Mark, “I'm the one giving orders now, bolt boy. And I think I'm gonna like it here.” He said while crossing his legs and getting comfortable on the chair.

But his peace didn’t last long, Mark spit out the champagne he was drinking when he heard a familiar voice.

"Don't get too comfortable, Mark!” Jared said flying with super speed along with Chad and landed near just beside the point where the Gods and Goddesses, who were captured, were bound in chains. He broke the chains and freed them one by one, making them gain an upper hand.

"JARED! Mark yelled furiously.

All the gods and goddesses were cheering for Jared while fighting, while the brainless Titans had became confused as to whom they should fight now. Mark pointed at Jared and Chad and ordered, “Get him, you imbecils.”

When Jared saw the lord of the flame was following him and Chad, he ordered Chad to fly over Mark’s head. When Mark saw the Lord of the Flame was getting near him he yelled, “ No! Get him! Not me! Him!” but the stupid Titan didn’t stop pouring the lava and it hit Mark in the process. Chad and Jared laughed at Mark’s lava covered statute.

Chad and Jared flew over the pile of stone that used to be where his father stood and this time they garnered Lurker’s attention. Mark was trying to get the the remaining of lava off of himself. He looked at Lurkur and said, “Follow the fingers! Him! You should freeze HIM, The yutz with the horse!” he yelled at them furiously.

Once again Jared and Chad flew towards Mark’s direction. Sure enough the stupid Titan followed after him, again, hitting Mark and freezing him.

“Hell yeah,” Chad said and leaped towards the stone pile. With one swift move Jared jumped off of Chad’s back and rushed towards it. Jared reached out and broke the stones around Jeff and with one final push Jeff broke free. “NOOOOOOO” Mark yelled.

“Thank you, my boy” Jeff told Jared softly. Jeff then became serious again and looked at Mark and the Titan , “Now watch your old man work! Throw the bolts, Hephaestus” he said.

As soon as Hephaestus threw the thunderbolts at Jeff all the four titans went “Uh-oh!” knowing too well what was gonna happen next. So as to avoid another hundred years in prison they started to run.

Mark looked at the scene in front of him seething and said, “Guys, get your titanic rears in gear and kick some Olympian butt.” But his words held no power since Jared was rushing to the Titans to get rid of them once and for all. Jared captured the Mystic voice and started to spin it around his head, sucking up all the other Titans into the tornado shaped monster. He gathered all his strength and threw the Titans far away in the cosmos. Making them blow up in a place out side of earth’s surrounding.

All the Gods and Goddesses started cheering this victory and Jared, Jeff yelling at everyone “That’s my son” and patting Jared’s back. They were so engulfed in their victory that missed Mark hopping up on his chariot with his two idiot minions. He looked back at Jared and said, “Thanks a ton, Wonder boy. But at least I've got one swell consolation prize, a friend of yours who's dying to see me.” He said, his tone full of venom.

Jared went pale, “JEN!”

XXXXXXXXXX

Jensen was breathing hard, he could feel he didn’t have much time left, all Jensen wanted then was that he could meet Jared one more time, to apologize to him for all that happened. He was praying hard to all the Gods to keep Jared safe.

Jim was also praying for Jared’s well being, but he also felt so sad for the boy lying in front of him. He could now see the pain and sadness in the boy’s face. Jim thought Jensen looked so much older now lying there in his own thoughts, fighting for each second that he was living. He also prayed for Jared to see Jensen one last time, knowing that Jared won’t ever recover from this grief if he won’t get say good bye to Jensen.

They both were out of their thoughts with a huge sound and a bright light went up in the sky. When they looked up, they saw something exploding in the night sky and then peace and calm washed over the earth. All the thunder and lighting was gone from the sky. "He did it” Jensen whispered. Feeling relieved that Jared was safe. He suddenly felt he couldn’t breath anymore, he started coughing furiously. Jim felt helpless by his side. Jensen clutched to Jim’s hand and said, “tell…him…I… love…him.”

"I’ll promise kid, I’ll promise” Jim assured him. With that Jensen closed his eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jared was torn between following Mark and beating the shit out of the bastard or rushing to Jensen’s side. In the end he knew his heart had won. He yelled, “CHAD” and as soon as the horse was a feet away from him, he jumped on top of him and flew to get to Jensen.

Chad was flying with speed, trying to get his childhood friend to the love of his life, probably for the last time. He could here Jared repeating Jensen’s name like a mantra.

When they got near the cliff they had left Jim and Jensen behind, Jared could see Jim’s hunched back, holding Jensen’s hand and he didn’t like that scene at all. “JEN” he yelled but his only response was Jim’s sad face looking at him.

"Jen, No” Jared could feel the tears already started to flow. He jumped off Chad and ran to Jensen’s side.

"Oh, I'm sorry, kid.” Jim said slowly while getting up from Jensen’s side to give Jared more room. As soon as the words were out of Jim’s mouth, Jared felt his knees buckle and he knelt down on the ground. He gathered Jensen’s lifeless body and pressed it to his heart and sobbed his anguish out. Just like the sky which was crying it’s own tears, seemed like Jeff was also sad to see his boy in pain.

Jim and Chad stood far away trying to hold back their own tears. When finally Jared’s tears slowed down a bit Jim slowly approached him and said, “There's some things you just can't change kiddo”

It was like a light bulb went on in Jared’s mind, he looked up in Jim’s eyes and said, “Yes, Yes I can.”

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Mark was walking in his own lair , pacing the room in anger, blowing up everything in his hand. “We were so close! So close but we tripped at the finish line. Why? Because our little nut, Jen, has to go all noble.” Mark said sarcastically.

He was deep in his own thoughts when the main door to the lair came crashing down. There it was, Jared on top of his three headed wild dog that Mark kept as a pet and a guardian for Hell’s doors. “Where's Jen?” Jared asked him.

When Mark was out of his shock of seeing Jared down in his lair, he finally said, “Oh. Look who's here.” Mark already lost everything it wasn’t like he could go down deeper. The only thing lower than this was death but Mark was immortal so seriously, what worse could happen to him?

Jared on the other hand, wasn’t in the mood to play games, so he jumped off of the dog’s back and with few long steps he got near Mark and grabbed him by his collar. Mark held up his hands and said, “Wonder boy, you are too much! No need to get angry with me now, you won yay, all the Cosmos went home happily!”

"Let him go.” Jared emphasized.

Mark slowly got out of Jared’s hold and put his hand around Jared’s neck and said, “Come here. Come here. Let me show you around.” He took Jared near a big well, “Well, well. It's a small underworld, after all, huh?” Mark continued. The well was filled with some green liquid, but when you looked closely the well was actually filled with all the souls that were ripped. But Jared’s eyes looked for only one person .

"Jen!” Jared bent down and reached to grab Jensen’s soul, but as soon as his hands touched the water, his hands started to age. Jared pulled back his hands as fast as he could . He heard Mark chuckled and said, “No, no, no. Mustn't touch. You see, Jen’s running with a new crowd these days, and not a very lively one at that.”

Jared saw Jensen’s soul was swirling deeper and deeper in the well. He looked at Mar and said, “You like making deals. Take me in Jen's place.”

Mark seemed shocked at Jared’s declaration but he regain his composure and said, “Oh, hmmm. The son of my hated rival trapped forever in a river of death.” He started thinking out loudly, Jared was running out of time and patience, “ Going once!” he said holding his fingers in Mark’s face.

“Hmm? Is there a downside to this?” Mark seemed oblivious to Jared’s count down, he kept thinking out loud.

“Going twice!” Jared said once more as the final threat.

“Okay, okay, okay, okay! You get him out. He goes; you stay.” Mark told Jared and as soon as they shook their hands Jared dived in the well.

“Oh, you know what slipped my mind? You'll be dead before you can get to him. That's not a problem, is it?” Mark said with a devilish grin on his face, knowing full well that Jared was so deep in the water that couldn’t hear him.

As Jared was swimming towards Jensen’s soul he could see and feel that his body was aging, but he was determined, he would save Jensen even if he was going to die himself.

The fate sisters could see Jared was aging, he was getting near his time of death sooner, they pulled out Jared’s life thread, two of them holding the thread while the other brought the scissors close, one cut and Jared would be dead.

When the third sister closed the scissors, they were all shocked to see the thread was still in one piece. She tried several more times but it only broke the scissors.

“What's the matter with these scissors?” the third sister asked inspecting the scissors.

The other two looked at the glowing thread in front of them with disbelief. They looked at each other and said, “This thread won't cut.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“This is... This is impossible!” Mark couldn’t believe what he saw, there it was Jared standing in front of him with Jensen’s soul in his hands. He was young and beautiful and he was glowing all over his body. “You... You... You can't be alive. You'd have to be a, a...”

“A God?” Misha and Moosha finished Mark’s sentence from their hiding spot behind a giant rock, equally astonished.

“Jared, stop! Ya can't do this to me! Ya can't...we.. we had a deal” Mark tried desperately, but with one slap from Jared on his face he knew there was no negotiation on that part. “Fine. Okay. Listen. Okay, well, I deserved that.” He said while rubbing his face where Jared had sapped him, “Jare? Jare? Can we talk? Y-Your dad? He's a fun guy, right? So maybe you could put in a word with him, and he'd kind of blow this whole thing off, you know?” When Jared paid no attention to him, Mark tried one last thing he could, and it was the wrong move, he grabbed Jensen’s face and said” Jen, Jen, talk to him. You know, a little schmooze, uh...”

Jared’s blood boiled as soon as he saw Mark’s hand on Jensen’s soul, this had gone far enough, he gathered all his strength in his arm and punched Mark square in the face, making him fly a few feet away and land directly in the well.

As Mark hit the water, all the dead and broken souls clutched to his body, begging to be relieved from the well, “Get away from me! Don't touch me! Get your slimy souls off me!” Mark was trying so hard to get out of the well but all his struggle only took him deeper in the well.

Misha and Moosha slowly got out of their hiding spot and came near the edge of the well, they looked down.

“He's not gonna be happy when he gets outta there.” Misha said scared.

“You mean, if he gets outta there.” Moosha said smirking.

“If?” Misha asked but it suddenly dawned on him that chances of Mark getting out of those angry souls hand’s was very slim “Yeah, If is good.” He said with a devilish grin, looking at Mark’s body deep in the well.

XXXXXXXXXX

Jared slowly came near Jensen’s body and knelt down. He put Jensen’s soul gingerly on his body and looked as it delved into Jensen’s body. After few seconds Jensen came back with a loud inhale of breath and slowly opened his eyes. “Jared?” Jensen asked, confused.

Jared thought he never heard any one say his name in such a beautiful fashion, he couldn’t hide the joy and happiness on his face even if he wanted to. He hugged Jensen tight, making Jensen to go “oomph” . When he felt Jensen’s heart beat against his own he felt all the tension in his drain away.

“Wonder boy, what... Why did you...” Jensen asked him.

Jared pulled part only a little to look into Jensen’s beautiful face. “People always do crazy things when they're in love.” Jared said softly, which made Jensen blush and look back at him with all love in his eyes.

Jared thought Jensen was never more beautiful than in that moment. He couldn’t help it any more, he pulled Jensen against himself again and kissed him on the lips. It started slow and sweet but then as the went on they became more and more hungry to taste each other, as Jensen opened his mouth a little bit to breath, Jared chose that moment to push his own tongue in Jensen’s mouth and kissed him desperately, trying to feel that he was alive and he was there.

They came out of their haze with Jim cleaning his throat and Chad’s loud, “get a room,” comment.

Both of them chuckled and looked at Chad and Jim, “You need to get used to this Chad, cause I just got Jen back and I’m planning to never let go,” Jared told them, making Jensen blush again and look at him with adoration. And for Chad to gag and Jim to roll his eyes.

They were once again surprised when suddenly two giant clouds appeared in front of them and slipped their way under their feet, lifting them into the sky.

The clouds brought them to the doors of heavens on top of mount Olympus. As they reached there, they heard Rich say, “Three cheers for the mighty Jared! And his loyal companions.” Everyone started cheering for them.

Jared heard Chad say, “yeah I can get used to this,” but all of his focus was on his mom and dad standing on top of the stairs beside the doors. He raced his way towards them.

When he got on the stairs, his mother hugged him tight. Jared inhaled her scent remembering the peace and calm of his childhood in his mother’s arm. When she let go of him, she said, “My dear Jared, we're so proud of you.”

Jared pulled back from his mother, looked in her eyes, trying to remember and take in every tiny detail, “Mother.” He breathed out.

Their little moment was broken when Jeff slowly patted Jared on the back, “Fine work, my boy! You've done it! You're a true hero.” Jeff said softly.

Jared looked back at him shocked, not believing what he heard. Jeff chuckled at Jared’s surprised face, his mouth shaped like an O, “You were willing to give your life to rescue this young man.” Jeff explained, pointing to Jensen, “For a true hero isn't measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.” Jeff and his wife smiled at their son.

Jared looked back at where Jensen was standing, smiling up at him and looking at him with his beautiful green eyes, Jared couldn’t help himself, he grinned and winked at Jensen, making him chuckle cutely.

“Now, at last, my son...you can come home.” Jeff said loudly for everyone to hear.

Jared lost the sight of Jensen when all the Gods and Goddesses rushed towards him to congratulate on being one of them, for finally being able to come home.

Jensen looked at the scene in front of him, happy for Jared to finally be able to meet his parents, for finally belonging some where, but then it dawned on him, if Jared was a god and he lived on mount Olympus, they could never be together.

Jensen looked at Jared in the circle of all the Gods and Goddesses, smiling and happy, No I ca’nt be selfish again, he thought. If Jared wanted to stay with his parents he wouldn’t stand in his way, hell Jared could be the best God the whole cosmos had ever scene. So Jensen slowly backed away, walking towards the cloud that brought them here to go back to his own miserable life, just this time he will cherish every memory he had with Jared. “Congratulations, Wonder boy. You'll make one heck of a God.” He whispered under his breath.

Jensen was nearly on the cloud when a strong hand grabbed his wrist, he looked back and saw Jared, standing there and smiling at him. Jared looked back at his father and said, “Father, this is the moment I've always dreamed of but...” Jared looked back at Jensen and tugged his hand, pulling him towards the stairs, “A life without Jen, even an immortal life would be empty.” Jared then took both of Jensen’s hands in his and looked straight into his eyes. “I… I wish to stay on Earth with him. I finally know where I belong.” Jensen gasped at what Jared said, not believing that he would leave all of that behind for him. “Jared…” Jensen whispered but Jared cut him off, “You are my home Jensen, where ever you are, is where I have to be.”

Jensen couldn’t help the tears that were streaming down his eyes, he leaned over and kissed Jared sweetly on the lips, but he suddenly remembered they were standing in front of all the powerful beings on Earth and also Jared’s parents. He pulled back, blushing but Jared leaned over again and whispered in his ear, “I love it when you blush this pretty.” which only made Jensen to blush harder.

When Jared looked back at his parents again he saw they were smiling at him, his mother’s eyes even though teary but were happy for the happiness she felt his son had found. With a wave of Jeff’s hand Jared felt something left his body and when he looked back at his hands he saw they weren’t glowing anymore, he was mortal again. He looked back at his father and Jeff nodded his head.

Jared then looked back at Jensen and then picked him up in his arms, swirling around together, both of them laughing so hard at the happiness they finally felt.

“Is it now our time my lord?” Rob asked Jeff from where he and Swainers were standing.

Jeff nodded his head and said, “Sure is, it’s time to celebrate my boy and his new groom.” He winked at them.

Rob looked at the rest of Loudain Swain and said, “Hit it gentlemen.”

Oh, gonna shout it from the mountaintops

A star is born

It's the time for pullin' out the stops

A star is born

Honey, hit us with a hallelu

That kid came shinin' through

Girl, sing the song

Come blow your horn A star is born, a star is born

While Loudain swain were singing Jeff used all of his powers and created a picture of Jared in the night sky with the stars. After Jared hugged his parents goodbye, Jared, Jim and Jensen hopped on Chad’s back to ride back home.

As they reached to the town’s square somebody pointed to the picture of Jared in the sky and said, “HEY, That's Jim's boy!” making Jim to tear up.

Loudain Swain’s voice still kept ringing in the air, everyone celebrating Jared’s victory.

He's a hero who can please the crowd

A star is born

Come on, everybody, shout out loud

A star is born

Just remember in the darkest hour Within your heart's the power

For makin'you a hero too

So don't lose hope when you're for lorn

Just keep your eyes

You just keep your eyes

Upon the skies

Upon the skies

Every night, a star is

Every night

Right in sight, a star is Burning bright

Burning bright

A star is born

“Do you think the story is over now?” Rob asked, “ well that’s were you are wrong” he continued winking.

********

All the people in town celebrated Jared’s victory over the Titans till midnight. They were all drinking beer and dancing on the streets. Chad and Jim were having the best of time with all the attention, both of them pretty drunk and telling stories from their fights.

In the end of the night, all the people scooped Jared up and brought him to his home on their hands, Jensen, Jim and Chad following after them, laughing.

When they got home and finally were left alone, Jim looked at them and said, “Well I don’t know about you young folks but this old man had had enough for today and is more than ready for bed!” Jensen and Jared looked at him and said, “Good night Jim,” in unison.

Jim hesitated for a second but then moved forwards and hugged both Jared and Jensen, whispering, “I’m so proud of you, both of you”

Jared hugged Jim tight and said, “Couldn’t have done it with out you old man!” but Jensen was too choked up to say anything, he just squeezed Jim to show how grateful he was.

When they pulled apart Jim cleared his throat and said, “ Well at least we can blame this on the beer tomorrow.” He chuckled and continued, “ I guess I better go now and leave you two love birds to it then,” he winked at them and when Jensen and Jared both blushed, he laughed at them.

“Hey Chad get your ass out of here, love doves need their nest!” Jim yelled at Chad who was fast asleep on one of the coaches, with his mouth open and his tongue out. “ Gods how much I wished I knew how to draw right now to capture this glorious moment for ever!” Jim said, making Jared and Jensen chuckle. “Well, now we all know horses can’t handle their liquor.” Jim then looked at them and said, “He is out for the word fellas. I think you are good for the night,” and once again laughed when he saw Jensen and Jared in deep shade of red. He then walked to his own room.

When they were finally just the two of them, Jared held Jensen’s hand and looked at him, “Shall we?” he motioned to the stairs leading to the bedroom.

“Together!” Jensen squeezed Jared’s hand and they walked the stairs up together.

When they got near the bedroom, Jared scooped Jensen up making him squeal, which he totally denied later, and took him in their room, bridal style.

“You do know that we are not married right?” Jensen asked Jared.

Jared looked him in the eye and said, “I’ll better do something about it then!” he then put Jensen gingerly on the bed and he climbed after him.

“Don’t joke about things like that!” Jensen said quietly, looking at any place but Jared. So Jared slowly held his chin in his hand and made him look into his eyes and said, “I’m not joking.”

Jensen blushed again, “Is this your way of proposing? Because I’m tellin’ ya, it kind of sucks,” he joked.

Jared chuckled at that, “Okay princess I’ll promise you I’ll do the whole candles and roses later, but for now I have something else in mind!” he said mischievously.

“Oh yeah?” Jensen breathed out in anticipation.

“Yeah,” Jared bent down and whispered in Jensen’s ear. He started nibbling Jensen’s ear lobe and kissing behind his ears, making him moan prettily.

Jared then started kissing Jensen’s neck, sucking and leaving his own marks into Jensen’s soft pale flesh. Jensen arched up his back and moaned louder. “Jared” he whispered.

“What, sweet heart ? Tell me what do you want?” Jared asked him softly while playing with his ear lobe.

“Fu…fuck me,” Jensen said.

“No, sweet heart! I’m not gonna fuck you! I’m going to make love to you,” Jared said and put a chaste kiss on Jensen’s lips. He then slowly brought his hands under Jensen’s tunic, lifting it up and helped him get naked.

Jared threw the tunic away and looked at Jensen’s body with lust and hunger in his eyes.

“Jared…,” Jensen breathed out.

“GODS Jensen, you don’t know how beautiful you are. Perfect, every where.” Jared told him then started kissing his way down Jensen’s body. He took one of his nipples in his mouth and sucked on it. Jensen arched his back and moaned. “You like that, sweet heart? Do you think I can make you come just by this? Playing with your nipples for hours and hours till they are sore?” Jared asked him.

“OH gods… Jay..”

Jared let go of his nipples with loud sound and said, “Next time sweet heart, now I need you! I need to feel you.”

“Yes, gods yes!” Jensen said.

Jared slowly traced Jensen’s body with his fingers till he got to the waistband of his shorts. He slowly, oh very slowly, pulled his shorts off, looking at Jensen all the while and Jensen looking back at him. Tracing his every movement. Within moments, Jensen was all naked and Jared was still in his clothes. Jensen felt so aroused with the way Jared was handling him. He didn’t know why but being this way, all naked in front of a still clothed Jared made him feel him venerable but he was even more turned on by it. Maybe cause it was Jared in front of him and not any one else. He knew he was safe with Jared, that Jared would take care of him. He knew Jared loved him and he loved him back. Suddenly this wasn’t enough, he reached his hands towards Jared and said, “Jared.. I need… I need to feel you.”

Jared seemingly read his mind and said, “What ever you want, sweet heart.” And slowly began to undress. When he was completely naked, Jensen felt his mouth water at the sight before him. Jensen was all flexed muscle and tan, there was few scars here and there, from the many battles he had fought but it all only made him look more sexy.

When Jared bent over him again Jensen slowly put his hands on Jared’s well toned chest, he came out of his thoughts when Jared said, “It’s okay Jensen you can touch me.” And then Jensen was game. He traced his hands all over Jared’s body, feeling every muscle, while Jared peppered kisses around his face and neck again.

Suddenly, none of it was enough. Jensen moaned Jared’s name and it looked like they already had this connection cause Jared told him, “I know” and went to grab the oil from his bathroom.

Jensen waited impatiently for Jared and his face lit up when he saw Jared emerged from bathroom, Jared smiling back at him.

“You ready sweet heart?” Jared asked him when he got to the foot of the bed.

“More than,” Jensen answered honestly and opened his legs to Jared as an invitation.

“Fuck! The things you do to me Jensen.” He then knelt between Jensen’s open legs and coated his finger with oil, “Any time you’re hurt, tell me. We will stop Jensen okay, I don’t want to hurt you” he told Jensen, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

Jensen smiled at him and said, “You will never hurt me Jared!”

Jared then slowly began to trace his fingers over that puckered hole and then pushed his finger in. He pushed his fingers in and out of Jensen making him moan each time.

“I’m fine Jay.. gods I need more,” Jensen told him.

“So impatient,” Jared chuckled but added a new finger, which silenced Jensen from whatever sarcastic come back he had and just made him moan .

Soon, Jared was pushing three fingers in and out of Jensen and Jensen was a mewling mess on the bed.

“GOD JAY.. ready… I’m ready… just please more… anything!”

Jared decided it was enough teasing plus the sight of Jensen on bed begging him so pretty was something that he wasn’t sure how long he can hold back his own orgasm. So he slowly pulled out his fingers and coated his dick. He held his erection in his hand but stopped at Jensen’s entrance, needing to know once more that he was fine. “You ready baby?”

“God yes … please Jay”

With one long hard thrust Jared pushed his dick into Jensen. Both him and Jensen gasped at the feeling. Jensen felt so full. He couldn’t believe but him and Jared... they were here and they were both alive and they were together. Jensen closed his eyes, not wanting the rush of emotions to make him into a crying mess.

Jared was left breathless. He stopped still for a second, knowing one move and he would come all over. He couldn’t believe he was inside Jensen, he couldn’t tell where he ends and where Jensen began, they were one now, just two of them, together. He looked at Jensen’s face and saw his eyes closed. He reached out and caressed his face and said, “Jen …open your eye… let me see your beautiful eyes.”

Jensen slowly opened his eyelids and when he saw Jared’s face, full of love, he couldn’t help it any more, one single tear ran down his cheeks. “Jay.. this.. you don’t…”

“I know sweet heart, I know,” Jared said and leaned down and kissed Jensen softly. But soon the lust won over and the soft kiss turned deeper, more hungry. Jared slowly started thrusting his hips and with each thrust he ate the moans that Jensen made.

Soon his thrust became more frantic, he let go of Jensen’s lips to breath. “Jared… Jay… I’m… I’m close!” Jensen told him .

“Me too sweet heart… together?” with one, two, three trusts and Jared hitting Jensen’s sweet spot on each one, Jensen came screaming and Jared followed after him with a grunt.

After a few seconds when Jared came back to it, he saw Jensen lying there under him spent and between awake and asleep but he had a soft smile on his face. “I love you, Jen,” Jared told him.

“I love you too, Jay.” Jensen said back.

Jared slowly pulled out his dick, making Jensen to whimper for the loss, “Shhh just getting a wash cloth to clean us up..:” Jared soothed him and went to grab a cloth.

When he got back he manhandled Jensen to his side and slowly cleaned him up. And himself. He threw the cloth away and slipped in the bed behind Jensen, with him the little spoon and Jared as the big spoon. He pulled Jensen closer to himself and scented his neck. Already drifting to sleep feeling peace and love wash over him. He finally was home.

The end

**************

**Author's Note:**

> So here is the link to all the gorgeous art @dwimpala67 did.  
> https://dwimpala21.livejournal.com/5847.html
> 
> And a list to all the soundtracks of the original movie that Swainers aing in this fic.  
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL423EAE8171343727


End file.
